WASHINGTON (AP) — Changing the way it does business, Medicare on Friday unveiled a far-reaching overhaul of how it pays doctors and other clinicians.
The goal is to reward quality, penalize poor performance, and avoid paying piecemeal for services. Whether it succeeds or fails, it’s one of the biggest changes in Medicare’s 50-year history.
The complex regulation is nearly 2,400 pages long and will take years to fully implement. It’s meant to carry out bipartisan legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama last year.
OCTOBER 24, 2015, 11:20 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2015, 12:59 PM
BY JEAN RIMBACH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
One doctor won his medical license back after he served time in prison for sexual crimes against female patients. He is a registered sex offender on lifetime parole supervision.
Another physician accused of sexual impropriety is restricted from having patients remove their underwear during exams — or be alone when treating girls age 10 or older — under a confidential agreement that hides his name from the public.
And a third, who pleaded guilty to sexual contact with three female patients, was barred from treating women but allowed to see male patients in the presence of a chaperone — until he violated that requirement and lost his license again.
The state’s system of handling accusations of sexual misconduct by doctors was called into question by revelations early this year about the case of Gangaram Ragi, a Teaneck dermatologist who continues to practice despite a dozen allegations of groping patients.
Now a review by The Record shows it to be a system that is at times porous, inconsistent and opaque, one that allows physicians to resume their practice despite evidence of serious improprieties.
Even convicted abusers, who have violated their positions of trust in disturbing ways, have been returned to work by the state Board of Medical Examiners.
Who these doctors are — and the limits placed on them — may not always be apparent to patients.
