April 11 (Bloomberg) — U.S. officials, defending a decision to release pay data that suggests some eye doctors made millions of dollars from Medicare, say the list should spur physicians to push lower-cost drugs to their patients.

Doctors say they're being unfairly flogged for a system they can't control.

The squabble centers on Roche Holding AG's Lucentis, a $2,000-per-vial injection for a degenerative eye disease in seniors. Because the treatment's cost is included in their reimbursement, eye doctors dominated the list of Medicare's top earners. By listing payments without that explanation, doctors say the government is trying to embarrass and pressure them into switching patients to a lower-cost option.

"It's a back-door way of rationing rather than being up- front with patients," said John Welch, a Nebraska eye doctor who was listed in the Medicare data released April 9 as the ninth highest-paid physician in the nation in 2012.

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