Researchers analyzed more than 3 million Medicare claims for more than 245,000 providers in 2012.
Here are five insights:
1. Researchers found nephrology had the largest Medicare payment gap by sex, followed by pulmonary medicine and internal medicine.
2. Hematology, medical oncology and critical care had the narrowest gap between male and female physicians.
3. All specialties studied had gaps in Medicare reimbursement between male and female physicians.
4. While a recent study showed male physicians receive 8 percent more compensation than female physicians, researchers are not clear why a gap exists in Medicare reimbursement. The lead researcher, Tejas Desai, MD, said,” In this case there is no negotiation; Medicare sets it, and everybody has to accept it. We tried to make a study designed in a way so that the most common explanations are accounted for or completely eliminated from the equation.
5. The study did not take geography into account, and researchers plan on conducting a study analyzing geographic difference in an upcoming Medicare reimbursement study.
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