Urologists Self Refer Cancer Patients and Drive up Medicare Costs

Physical therapists will be familiar with the downside of physician self referral since medical specialties which use lots of physical therapy started bringing therapy clinics in-house in 2006 when clarifications to the Stark 2 "In-Office Ancillary Services Exception" were published in the Federal Register.

Now its urologists turn to stand in the spotlight thanks to this Wall Street Journal article and video interview exposing these self-serving practices.

The article focuses on a $40,000 treatment known as Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) which is an aggressive and expensive option for a disease that may not kill you until you're 120 years old.

Unfortunately, by then Medicare will be insolvent - perhaps due in part to the rapid rise in costs from IMRT treatments.

This video describes shows the sales pitch delivered by a company marketing the technology to urologists:



Dr. Gerald Chodak of Medscape speaks out against urologists' practice of self-referral.

I wonder why we don't see any orthopedists or neurosurgeons speaking out against self-referral?