Medicare’s dismal pay for performance

Their embarrassingly small 1.5% bonus payments have physicians questioning whether the extra record-keeping is worth it:

It took a lot of paperwork and screwed up billing because we had to charge 1 cent per code so that the Medicare carrier’s computer would pick up the charges, and then had to manually write off that charge afterward.

In essence, the bonus equaled one extra 99213 office visit every other day. Most physicians would find it easier to squeeze in the extra visits rather than jump through bureaucratic hoops for minimal payment.