Median Physician Charges 2.5 Times Higher Than Medicare Rates

Median physician charges in 2014 were 2.5 times higher than what Medicare paid, according to data from 429,273 individual physicians across 54 medical specialties. The physician charge to Medicare payment ratio ranged from 1.0 to 101.1. The charge-to-Medicare payment ratio represents the upper limit of each physician’s actual excess charge, and may not be what a patient actually pays.

These findings were reported in “Variation in the Ratio of Physician Charges to Medicare Payments by Specialty and Region,” by Ge Bai, Ph.D., CPA; and Gerard F. Anderson, Ph.D. They analyzed Medicare . . .