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Two years ago, when the federal government first released data on how much Medicare paid physicians, the media coverage was widespread. Doctors who earned significant sums were dubbed "Medicare millionaires" and journalists highlighted unusual patterns in how some doctors bill for services. When Medicare released its third round of data last Thursday, the coverage was practically nonexistent. In some ways, that's because data releases from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have become almost routine. (Ornstein, 5/9)

It's one more milestone in Medicare history that physicians probably don't want to celebrate. The program last week published online what individual physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other clinicians received in fee-for-service (FFS) payments during 2014, the third annual data dump of its kind. The public-use data allow anyone to look up submitted charges and payments for Medicare Part B services and procedures by clinician. (Lowes, 5/9)

Doctors are learning valuable new lessons from past malpractice cases about mistakes that could put their patients at risk and expose them to lawsuits. Malpractice insurers and medical specialty groups are mining thousands of closed claims from suits that have been tried, dismissed or settled over the past few years. Their goal is to identify common reasons that doctors are sued and the underlying issues that threaten patient safety. They are sharing those insights with doctors and hospitals, which in turn are using them to develop new safety protocols and prevention strategies. (Landro, 5/9)