A recent report by the HHS Inspector General said CMS has not been verifying whether Medicare prescriptions for painkillers and other addictive drugs were written by real physicians, according to a Cutting Edge report.
The OIG report, based on 2007 data for Schedule II drugs, said invalid physician prescriber numbers were so common in Medicare records that the physicians who prescribed the most oxycodone, for example, can't be identified.
CMS receives prescription data from 1,000 contracted plans across the country but has not yet established rules requiring correct information on prescribers.
Read the OIG report (pdf).
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