the pit falls in ProPublica's prescribing data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

ProPublica relied on the Freedom of Information Act to obtain prescribing data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Though it took time and wrangling, CMS turned over not only data on all prescriptions written under Medicare Part D by the nation's physicians but also information on state-by-state prescribing patterns and associated costs. 82 Once properly structured to facilitate easy access and interpretation, the data allowed researchers and consumers 10 see at a glance how a given physician compared to his or her peers in prescribing patterns. One could quickly discern a doctor's most frequently prescribed drugs, the number of prescriptions by drug with associated costs, and how these patterns compared to other physicians in the state or in his or her specialty.