**GAO-03-185**                      Published: Mar 17, 2003. Publicly Released: Mar 17, 2003.                  

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## Highlights

Staffing companies that contract with physicians to staff hospital departments--including emergency departments--are not permitted to bill Medicare. In the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000, Congress directed GAO to assess the program integrity implications of enrolling these companies and allowing them to bill Medicare. GAO reviewed about 2.8 million emergency department claims for 2000 from five states and assessed whether contractor physicians retained by staffing companies billed Medicare comparably to other emergency department physicians. GAO also evaluated how the lack of information on staffing companies affects efforts to assure Medicare program integrity.

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## Topics

Health Care

Comparative analysisHealth care servicesHealth insuranceHospitalsManaged health careMedicarePhysiciansProgram managementHuman resources managementProgram beneficiaries