As the health care reform frenzy continues, one issue everyone can agree on is that runaway medical costs must be controlled. With that goal in mind, the issue of physician self-referral should come under increased scrutiny.
Whether you are a risk manager, an insurer or a third-party administrator trying to get a handle on your self-insured workers' compensation or employee health coverage costs, self-referrals by doctors for diagnostic or rehabilitative medical services should be a topic of keen interest.
An example of this practice is a growing number of physicians who refer patients for imaging done by scanners they own and profit from. For instance, one medical practice in Iowa increased requests for scans by 700 percent within seven months–the same time period after the practice bought its own CT scanner.
Recommended For You
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
