For a variety of reasons, physicians in the U.S. typically can’t charge for their services what they think the market will bear.
Take Medicare in the U.S., for instance. Do you know the difference in payment for the same service by the worst and best doctor in town? There is no difference; they get paid the exact same amount by Medicare. In a free market, the best doctor would command a higher fee than Medicare pays, and the worst earns less. If you don’t want to pay the higher fee, go to the cheaper doctor.
So Medicare limits what the better physician could earn. And it rewards lazy, bad doctors. To compensate for the limits on revenue imposed by Medicare and other major health insurers, physicians look for other ways to increase their take-home pay. One of many ways is medical lab testing scams.
Larry Husten has been doing great work covering the recent medical lab testing scams. Click the link below for details. A sample:
“I have received multiple reports from industry observers, doctors, and patients about the new and troubling schemes. These new scams are all based on avoiding, or at least appearing to avoid, the key mistake made by HDL: paying doctors directly for using their services. That is a kickback. The new schemes use a variety of intermediaries– phlebotomy services, physician owned labs, and MSOs (management services organizations)– instead of direct payments. But in the cases I’ve heard about it is completely clear to everyone involved that the doctors are being compensated for purchasing these lab tests.”
Source: The Wild West Of New Laboratory Scams
Steve Parker, M.D.
PS: If you think the entire U.S. medical healthcare system is chaotic and riddled with corruption, I won’t disagree with you. Do your best to stay healthy and stay out of the system.
