Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Tell your Senator how you feel about the Levin-Coleman bill.

How much do you know about your doctor's personal finances? Chances are not much, but they could have a huge impact on your practice's future if one bill passes.

Watch out: Two influential senators have proposed a law that would hold back some of your doctor's Medicare payments if the doctor owes back taxes to the government.

The proposed legislation comes after the Government Accountability Office testified at a March hearing that more than 21,000 physicians and related providers owed $1.3 billion in federal taxes. If just a portion of Part B payments had gone through a federal program to recoup tax debts, the government would have collected between $50 million and $140 million in unpaid taxes in just the first nine months of 2005.

The bill, introduced by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Norm Coleman (R-MN), would levy payments to "delinquent taxpayers" at 15 percent (or more) per year until they paid off their debts. CMS would start out by screening 50 percent of Part B payments within one year and all payments the following year.

Most physicians are honest, but "others have been stuffing taxpayer dollars in their pockets at the same time they have been stiffing Uncle Sam by not paying their taxes," said Levin. Medicare physicians also owe $33 million in child support and $27 million in student loans, so the bill would dock the physicians for those debts too.

It would be a "horrible injustice" to take money away from a physician practice just because of a doctor's personal financial situation, says Rhonda Petrucillo, director of revenues and reimbursement with MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland  "There would be no way, as an employer, that we would know that kind of information about the physician."

"It's not just his personal paycheck," agrees Marcy Sabin, radiology billing manager with Texas Hematology/Oncology. "You're taking that money away from the employees. People could lose their jobs."

What to do: Write to your Senator to express your opinion of the Levin-Coleman bill, which is heading to the Senate Finance Committee.