A Washington D.C. Circuit Court recently ruled in favor of physicians and our privacy. The court found there is no public interest in disclosing to the public global Medicare payments to individual doctors. Consumers’ Checkbook had sought these disclosures through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. We owe major gratitude to the American Medical Association for intervening with the court on behalf of physicians and their private payment data.

Nonetheless, this issue will re-surface I predict. Congress will be asked to write a law that allows such releases.