Though there have been concerns over doctors fleeing the Medicare program, the feds have a rebuttal to those claims: Not so fast.

They say Medicare is picking up providers, and the percentage accepting new patients is holding steady.

According to a brief released by the Department of Health and Human Services, the number of providers who bill Medicare directly rose about 90,000 between 2007 and 2011, and the number of providers who charge their patients for covered procedures — the ones who "opt out" — increased by about 110,000, citing figures compiled by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The chart included in the brief shows about 1.02 million of the former, and 980,000 of the latter.