Where did $77 billion in Medicare money go?

Some recent data released on where Medicare money goes revealed the good, the bad and the ugly.

First, the bad.

In 2012 Medicare paid out around $77 billion, and a small fraction of docs and health care workers around the country managed to pocket nearly a quarter of that amount.

One ophthalmologist in Florida alone was paid over $20 million for giving injections of a pricey drug to treat macular degeneration.

So clearly, bean counters everywhere will be crunching this data for a very long time.

But there was some good news, too.

And that’s about chiropractic.

In 2012 Medicare paid out $496 million for chiropractic adjustments.

That means more and more people on Medicare are taking advantage of the fact that chiropractic treatments are covered.

And that didn’t all go to just a handful of chiropractors — but was paid out over all 50 states.

Of course, a lot of Medicare recipients still aren’t aware of that. And there are some people — especially those who profit from pushing Big Pharma’s drugs — who will tell you that chiropractic is an unproven technique.

And they’d would sure like to see that part of the Medicare program scrapped.

But a big reason for that is probably because people who don’t know better think chiropractic doesn’t do anything and chiropractors aren’t real doctors and are scammers.

If this data shows us anything, it’s that there are plenty of scammers out there with an MD after their names, doctors who are cheating the system — and their patients.

Sources:
“New Medicare data reveal startling $496 million wasted on chiropractors” Steven Salzberg, Forbes, forbes.com