The Ticker

Medicare paid some doctors millions

Medicare paid a tiny group of doctors $3 million or more apiece in 2012. One got nearly $21 million.

Those are among the findings of an analysis of physician data released yesterday by the Obama administration, part of a move to open the books on health care financing.

Topping Medicare's list was Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, who was paid $20.8 million. His lawyer said the doctor's billing conformed with Medicare rules and is a reflection of high drug costs.

The analysis found that a small sliver of the more than 825,000 individual physicians in Medicare's claims database — just 344 physicians — took in top dollar, at least $3 million apiece for a total of nearly $1.5 billion.

Deputy administrator Jon Blum said Medicare will now take a closer look at doctors whose payments exceed certain levels.

"We know there is waste in the system, we know there is fraud in the system," he said. "We want the public to help identify spending that doesn't make sense.

'Heartbleed' bug is security headache

A computer bug called "Heartbleed" is causing major security headaches across the Internet as websites scramble to fix the problem and Web surfers wonder whether they should change their passwords to prevent theft of their email accounts, credit card numbers and other sensitive information.

The breakdown revealed this week affects a widely used encryption technology that is supposed to protect online accounts for a variety of online communications and electronic commerce. Security researchers who uncovered the threat are worried because it went undetected for more than two years.

TODAY

 Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.

 Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, releases weekly mortgage rates.

 Treasury releases federal budget for March.

TOMORROW

Labor Department releases the Producer Price Index for March.

THE SHUFFLE

Kaloutas Painting, a commercial painting company headquartered in Peabody, announced the appointment of Douglas Blake of Salem to the newly created position of director of the Industrial Flooring Division. The appointment follows Kaloutas Painting's recent acquisition of Ipswich-based sister companies Clean World Floors and Res-Stone Industrial Flooring. Blake, who had an ownership stake in the companies, will lead Kaloutas Painting's effort to expand its scope of services into the commercial flooring arena.

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