Doctors Banned From Medicare May Get an Easier Shot at a Second Chance

Medicare’s chief watchdog plans to make it easier for doctors who have lost their licenses and gotten new ones to resume billing the program. Under a proposal published on Friday, authorities would have more latitude to reinstate doctors and other professionals banned from Medicare after they’ve been punished by states for misconduct.

The planned change comes even as new Medicare data shows that the federal health program for older Americans pays millions of dollars to doctors whose licenses were revoked but who managed to keep practicing by getting licenses in other states. One doctor convicted of embezzlement in Ohio and barred permanently from practicing medicine there was granted a license in New Mexico, where he collected $660,000 from Medicare in 2012, according to Bloomberg News. A ProPublica report found that doctors banned from state Medicaid programs collected more than $6 million in 2012.