CMS posts DMEPOS data dump

WASHINGTON - CMS has posted a new data set that provides information on more than 385,000 physicians and other healthcare professionals who referred DMEPOS products and services.

In all, the data set represents more than 100 million claims and $11 billion in Medicare allowed amounts.

“The data set is part of a wider set of initiatives by the administration to achieve better care, smarter spending and healthier people throughout our healthcare system,” stated Andrew Slavitt, acting CMS administrator. “CMS is providing this data to support insight and innovations in healthcare delivery.”

The data set contains information on utilization, payment (allowed amount and Medicare payment) and submitted charges organized by NPI, HCPCS code and supplier rental indicator.

Based on the data, users can find out, for example, patterns of DMEPOS utilization and Medicare allowed amounts for the 10 largest referring provider specialties. Internal medicine tops the list with 87,107 referring providers and $29,954 average allowed amount; and family practice is not far behind, with 81,603 referring providers and $27,982 average allowed amount.