Medicare may release physician pay data

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) may give out information about the amount of money it pays individual physicians.

CMS, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), talks about the policy change in a notice set to appear in the Federal Register Friday. The policy would take effect 60 days after the official publication date.

In the past, CMS would not provide information about individual Medicare physician pay in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Now, officials say in the notice, a district court has vacated an injunction that once prevented federal agencies from disclosing individually identifiable Medicare physician pay information.