Medicaid Mystery Shoppers

The Obama administration has reportedly scrapped, or at least shelved, its plan to use "mystery shoppers" to call up doctor's offices pretending to be Medicare or Medicaid patients trying to get an appointment. Probably that's for the best. There are probably other ways of obtaining the information — like just sending out a survey letter to the doctors or setting up a Web site that asks doctors to respond to the question or asks patients to name doctors who refuse to treat them. These methods have the advantage of not requiring agents of the government to lie to citizens. They also won't tie up doctor's office phone lines and delay access for actual genuine patients who are in need of medical care or attention.