California counties file multimillion dollar Medicare claim

SAN DIEGO ---- In what could be the prelude to a lawsuit, San Diego and four other counties filed a claim Tuesday charging that the federal Medicare system had illegally withheld billions of dollars from doctors and counties nationwide, including $155 million from San Diego County physicians.

Dr. Ted Mazer, head of the San Diego County Medical Society, said the claim asks Medicare to pay an estimated $2.45 billion in back payments through 2001.

But, Mazer said, the claim also seeks to push the federal government to change what the claim alleges is an antiquated reimbursement system that characterizes San Diego County ---- and more than 200 others nationwide ---- as rural areas and pays them less than doctors in urban locales.