Healthy Skepticism Library item: 5864

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Publication type: news

Stafford A.
Penalties set to prevent bribes by radiologists
The Age (Melbourne) 2006 Aug 11
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/penalties-set-to-prevent-bribes-by-radiologists/2006/08/10/1154803030127.html

Full text:

Penalties set to prevent bribes by radiologists

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/penalties-set-to-prevent-bribes-by-radiologists/2006/08/10/1154803030127.html

Annabel Stafford, Canberra
August 11, 2006

TOUGH new penalties are set to be imposed on radiologists to prevent
them offering bribes to doctors to direct tests their way. Measures will
also be adopted to stop doctors soliciting bribes from radiologists.

The move follows a blow-out in the cost of radiology services. It also
comes in the wake of warnings from Health Minister Tony Abbott that he
wanted to halt the increasing number of Medicare rebates feeding the
profits of big medical corporations.

Some of these corporations own GP practices as well as pathology and
radiology services, and there are concerns they can encourage referrals
within the company to boost earnings.

The new rules for radiologists are expected to resemble penalties
already announced to prevent deals between pathologists and doctors,
following a review of pathology services earlier this year that found
pathology companies had offered gifts such as above-market rent payments
to doctors in return for their referrals.

According to a spokeswoman for Mr Abbott, while there were “no
significant problems found” by that review, “there were concerns that
parts of the legislation could be tightened up to prevent inappropriate
practices, for example, inducements for doctors to refer to particular
pathologists. From this, the Government decided to apply the same
principles to radiology.”

Radiologists say there is no inappropriate conduct in the sector, and
blame the cost blow-out on Government policies that have boosted visits
to GPs and increased litigation against doctors.

Australian Diagnostic Imaging Association president Ron Meikle said: “An
appropriate legislative framework is essential to ensure there is no
overservicing of patients or unnecessary servicing of patients, but we
don’t think for a moment this is a problem in radiology.”

The industry was doing its own work on promoting quality use of
diagnostic services, he said. “As there are limited resources to fund
Medicare benefits for imaging services, it’s important that every dollar
is spent as appropriately as possible to allow access by patients to
affordable, quality services.”

Both radiology and pathology are subject to capped funding agreements,
so if spending on those services grows by more than around 5 per cent in
a year, the Government cuts the price of each individual test. Over the
past year, both pathology and radiology have burst their funding cap so
the professions are trying to convince the Government not to cut the
price of each service.

Lake Imaging chief executive officer John Livingston said that when the
Government introduced incentives for GPs to bulk-bill patients and the
Medicare Safety Net, there was a corresponding increase in demand for
radiology services.

There had also been a blow-out in the number of Medicare-funded
chronic-disease management plans ordered by GPs, Labor’s health
spokeswoman Julia Gillard said yesterday. While the Government expected
GPs to claim rebates for 376,000 plans in the first year, around 590,000
had been claimed.