The Defensive CT Scan Hoax
A very common claim by the "reform" movement is that doctors often run unnecessary tests because they're afraid of being sued. CT Scans are one of the tests "reformers" often claim are abused. The New York Times ran an article explaining that yes, CT Scans often are abused, but not because of "defensive medicine."
A group of cardiologists recently had a proposition for Dr. Andrew Rosenblatt, who runs a busy heart clinic in San Francisco: Would he join them in buying a CT scanner, a $1 million machine that produces detailed images of the heart
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Dr. Rosenblatt worried that he and other doctors in his clinic would feel pressure to give scans to people who might not need them in order to pay for the equipment, which uses a series of X-rays to produce a composite picture of a beating heart.
“If you have ownership of the machine,” he later recalled, “you’re going to want to utilize the machine.” He said no to the offer.
Already, more than 1,000 hospitals and an estimated 100 private cardiology practices own or lease the $1 million CT scanners, which can be used for the angiograms and for other imaging procedures. Once they have made that investment, doctors and hospitals have every incentive to use the machines as often as feasible. To pay off a scanner, doctors need to conduct about 3,000 tests, industry consultants say.
Fees from imaging have become a significant part of cardiologists’ income — accounting for half or more of the $400,000 or so that cardiologists typically make in this country, said Jean M. Mitchell, an economist at Georgetown University who studies the way financial incentives influence doctors.
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CareCore National, a Bluffton, S.C., company that reviews treatment and test requests for health insurers, has found that when doctors request a CT angiogram for a patient, they also frequently ask for a nuclear stress test.
“We’re seeing layering of tests on top of each other,” said Dr. Russell Amico, a CareCore executive. His company denies as many as 70 percent of the CT scans requested, a much higher rate of rejection than for other kinds of tests his company reviews.
Source: The Evidence Gap - Weighing the Costs of a CT Scan’s Look Inside the Heart - Series - NYTimes.com
"Reformers" are constantly accusing lawyers of filing frivolous lawsuits just to make a buck. Is it such a stretch to think that some doctors are running frivolous tests for exactly the same reason? Or are doctors immune from the desire to make money?
Cross Posted to Tort Deform