A small but growing number of providers are opting out of Medicare entirely, reports the Wall Street Journal.
 
Working from Medicare data, the Journal found that 9,539 doctors dropped out of the program in 2012 – not an earth-shaking number as about 685,000 physicians take Medicare patients, but one that has gone up every year since 2009, at least, when 3,700 doctors dropped Medicare.
 
In 2011, OIG looked into the number of dropout docs via CMS contractors but said in January 2012 that it couldn’t get hard numbers, though they said provider attrition “appears to have increased each year from 2006 to 2010,” probably by “less than 1%.”
 
The Journal also published figures from the American Academy of Family Physicians, saying that the percentage of family doctors who are not taking new Medicare patients climbed from 17% to 20% between 2010 and 2012. 
 
The Journal also devotes a slideshow to Dr. Juliette Madrigal-Dersch, a Texas pediatrician and internist who has dropped Medicare and serves as the president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a conservative activist group.
 
For the latest on Medicare trends affecting physicians, read Part B News.