Physician-Owned Labs Help Boost Comp Costs
One area fraught with wanton abuse was not mentioned in The Times’ comprehensive article on workers compensation abuses, “Fraud Disables State’s Workers Comp Program” (Aug. 23).
That is referrals by physicians to imaging and other facilities which they own, usually in a joint venture with other physicians.
These facilities, in league with kickback-paying “scan brokers,” have been found to (perform excessive numbers of expensive tests), overcharge and provide lower quality service.
Hypocritical by Hippocratic standards, unethical even by AMA (but not CMA) standards, and immoral by any standard, these lucrative ventures were found by the 1992 Mercer study to cost the California workers compensation program more than $350 million in excess charges.
It is estimated that they may cost the California public more than $9 billion in excess medical fees each year.
Legal closures of these nefarious shops has begun in New York, Florida and Illinois. Sadly, with the failure of Assembly 819 in California, the exploitation here will persist through at least another legislative term.
MICHAEL M. EDELSTEIN, M.D.
Northridge
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