Common patterns of corporate dermatology billing abuses in Medicare data sets

Abstract

Advances in technology have brought about significant changes in the way physicians' encounters are viewed. Patient charts once existed only in medical offices and hospital basements with medical billing done manually. Technologic changes have created new methods and expectations for oversight of the physician's practice. This contribution examines the effects of data transparency on dermatology. Medicare has also responded with new requirements for quality reporting. The ability to recreate clinical encounters from freely available and physician-identifiable claims data has led to lawsuits, investigations by news outlets, and distrust in the medical judgment of physicians. The release of data has also uncovered possible improper payments that have brought these practices out of the shadows. Medicare data over the past few years also show evidence of rapid corporatization and consolidation, which is changing the practice of dermatology.