Startling Amount of Medicare Spent on Chiropractors

As part of a transparency effort, the federal government recently released a huge data set that detailed how it spent $77 billion in Medicare funds in 2012. 

Most news organizations focused on who the biggest beneficiaries were.  Just 100 doctors received $610 mllion, including one ophthalmologist who was paid $20 million by Medicare for using a more expensive drug than was necessary. 

Another troubling waste of money involves the dubious practice of chiropractors.  The 2012 Medicare data reveals that $496 million was spent on chiropractors.  Even though chiropractors are not medical doctors, they lobbied furiously to force private health care providers to cover chiropractic and other alternative medical practices under Obamacare. 

See Steven Salzberg, New Medicare Data Reveal Startling $496 Million Wasted on Chiropractors, Forbes, Apr. 20, 2014.