At any rate, just so you don’t think I’ve been hitting the jug, here are two Medicaid applications (from different states, neither of which is mine) that ask for board certification info. The board certification question is on page 2 of each:

http://medicaidalaska.com/Downloads/Providers/AK_Provider_Application_02012010.pdf

http://medicaidprovider.hhs.mt.gov/pdf/enrollform.pdf

The app for my state is similar, and does explicitly ask for board cert info, but that’s because the fiscal intermediary (ACS) is the same as these two states. In states that use EDS (now HP) as their FI, the apps don’t ask for board certification information.

Which brings me to Rich’s Medicare provider apps. CMS allows some latitude to the fiscal intermediaries for Medicare and Medicaid on a variety of program implementation details. As the Medicaid examples suggest, this includes some tinkering with the provider apps.

So, either my memory has betrayed me and conflated an app from some other provider with a Medicare app, or my region’s FI (or MAC, as it is now called) enhanced the basic CMS form with a question about board certification.

In the morning, I’ll ask the poor wretch who actually birddogs these apps. Details at eleven.

and here is the NPI application:
http://www.cms.gov/cmsforms/downloads/CMS10114.pdf

Neither mentions anything about Board status or board certification, nor do they provide an opportunity to report it.

I am not willing to pay more tax for Medicare/Medicaid. the Medicare problem could be improved by allowing balance billing (at least in primary care) thus allowing providers to compete on price, quality, and customer service.

Medicaid could be improved by stopping payment for such things as tylenol, talc powder, otc athletes foot remedies, Viagra, taxi fare, aspirin, multivitamins, petrolatum jelly, and many others. Anyone coming to the office with an iPhone and nikes should pay for their own condoms.

And as for payments, I’ve asked you this so many times but you’ve never answered. Are you willing to pay more tax to fund Medicare/Medicaid payments? If not, what cuts will you make to fund the payments? Bear in mind that the US is already paying double or more per head for healthcare than other developed nations.

As it happens, one of my staff just finished a Medicaid application for one of our docs. and it contains two questions that specifically address board certification. I haven’t had the misfortune of reading a Medicare application in more than a year (thank God), but I’m pretty sure the NPI app has similar questions. Hopefully, even CMS (which dictates the guidelines for both programs) would not ask for such basic information for no reason (although that is certainly not a given).

Don’t’ be ridiculous, Marc. That Medicare and Medicaid pay below cost for physicians and hospitals is a well-documented reality that no informed observer bothers to dispute. Even those specialists who receive (relatively) decent reimbursement for some procedures get hammered on office visits. That’s why there is a serious and worsening doctor shortage for patients covered under these programs.