The federal government is putting 21 major health insurance companies that administrate Medicare plans on notice that they have major problems with the accuracy of their online provider directories. A government report found almost half of the 5,832 doctors listed had incorrect information, including wrong addresses and wrong phone numbers. Most health plans had inaccurate information for between 30% and 60% of their providers’ offices. The scoring methodology used by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services measured the number of bad metrics CMS researchers found in each Medicare provider directory. The number of wrong metrics were then used by CMS to develop what it calls its deficiency score.

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