How 5 specialties charge relative to Medicare rates

Average provider charges have been growing faster than Medicare payment rates, according to a report from the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, especially in two specialties: emergency medicine and anesthesiology.

For the report, researchers studied CMS data on charges for providers who treated Medicare patients from 2012-17.

Here's how five specialties charged relative to Medicare rates, on average. As a reference point, the ratio of charges to Medicare rates was 2.6 percent for all other specialties. 

Anesthesiology: 6.7 percent
Emergency medicine: 5.4 percent
Diagnostic radiology: 4 percent
Pathology: 3.5 percent
Primary care: 2.2 percent

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