Medicare pays out $59.9M to Springfield health workers in 2012

Last edited 8:51 a.m., June 25, 2014

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services paid out $59.9 million to Springfield health care professionals in 2012, according to data released this week by the federal government agency.

The Wall Street Journal compiled a searchable database of Medicare payments across the country.

In Springfield, the largest 2012 payment was $6.1 million, paid to Mercy Hospital Springfield for its ambulance service supplier. Of that funding, $2.9 million went toward advanced life support, while the second largest chunk, $2.1 million, was paid out for ground mileage, according to a breakdown of the payment on the Wall Street Journal's database.

The largest payout to an individual went to Dr. Mary Kay Vaske, a pathologist with Mercy Clinic Pathology-Springfield who was paid $3.5 million in 2012 for treatments including thyroid and blood tests.

Filling the remainder of the top 10 were:

• Patrick Gomez, a hematologist and oncologist paid $1.73 million;
• Leo Neu, an ophthalmologist paid $1.71 million;
• Mattax Neu Prater Surgery Center LLC, paid $1.4 million for its ambulatory surgical center;
• Norman Simon, a rheumatologist paid $1.1 million;
• Lori Wilson, a pathologist paid $965,408;
• Craig Naugle, a dermatologist paid $943,710;
• Bradford Place Surgery & Laser Center LLC, paid $882,295 for its ambulatory surgical center; and
• Robert Ellis, a hematologist and oncologist paid $874,508.

In Missouri, the largest payment during 2012, $20.8 million, went to a clinical laboratory in Kansas City - Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings.

The Wall Street Journal reports the top 1 percent of 825,000 individual medical providers accounted for 14 percent of the $77 billion in 2012 billing.[[In-content Ad]]