According to a study, 1 in 6 doctors in 2008 mentioned that her or his practice leased or owned improved screening tools. Doctor practice leasing or ownership of a wide group of medical tools ranging from tools for laboratory examining to strict proceedings, is quite common.
The Center for Studying Health System change (HSC) launched the report which was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. More referrals would be formed by doctors with or other financial interests in medical facilities than medically necessary. The federal physician self-referral law, identified as the Stark Act since the mid-1990s, has forbidden doctors from self-referring Medicare and Medicaid patients to a specific health services, ranging from clinical laboratory services to improved screening services.
There are several exceptions to the self –referral prohibitions, but, especially if the service is offered through the physician's office or practice. The previous finding on physician self-referral has concentrated on particular services, for instance improved screening. National data has been little that concerning how pervasive doctor ownership or leasing of medical tools is very widely.
HSC's nationally-representative 2008 Health Tracking Physician Survey asked doctors if their primary practice owned or leased tools needed for: laboratory examining involving routine blood work; other diagnostic imaging, such as CT or MRI scans, X-rays; Invasive procedures, such as endoscopy or cardiac catheterization and non-invasive testing besides electrocardiograms, or EKGs (e.g. echocardiograms, treadmill, nuclear testing, sleep testing).
Moreover, the study discovered that 1in 7 doctors 13.2% mentioned that their practice owned or leased 3 or more kinds of tools. Of 2,750 doctors in society –depended, physician-owned practices, 25.2% mentioned that practice owned/leased equipment for laboratory services, 22.7% for X-rays, 17.4% for improved screening, 28.9% for non-invasive procedures and 11.4% for invasive procedures. HSC Senior Researcher James Reschovsky, HSC Public Affairs Director Alwyn Cassil, and former HSC Senior Researcher Hoangmai H. Pham, MD were participated in the authoring of the study.
