In A Major Shift, Medicare Wants Power to Ban Harmful Prescribers

by Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein  ProPublica, Jan. 6, 2014, 4:43 p.m.    Medicare plans to arm itself with broad new powers to better control — and potentially ban — doctors engaged in fraudulent or harmful prescribing, following a series of articles by ProPublica detailing lax oversight in its drug program.   The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) described the effort late Monday in what’s known as a proposed rule, the standard process by which federal agencies make significant changes.  Read more