UDS PROFITEERING

[lobelsteve]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...r-cocaine-other-drugs-and-medicare-pays-bill/

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[emd123]

Unfortunately I send out all my uds and make $0 on them.

:crying:

But there are couple things are irritating about this article (on WSJ front page yesterday). First, they seem to focus on the fact that PCP is being tested for and that "seniors" rarely test positive for it. Well, thats true but you never really know what people are taking. Opiates, MJ and cocaine come up nowadays frequently. Will PCP come back next spring? Who knows. Thats why you run the test. No one would have predicted Kratom, spice or bath salts being abused, but they are. Plus, being over 65 doesn't mean you can abuse drugs, sell or share them. I had an 84 year old a few days ago that was discharged from her 3 previous Pain practices for suspicion of selling her pills. People who sell and abuse drugs and pills at age 64, dont always magically stop once they get their Medicare card.

Also, everyone is perfectly content for the decades that the lab companies are raking in the cash on these tests, but by golly, the minute a doctor makes a penny, he's a corrupt scumbag. They'll never be content until we all take a vow of poverty and work for the pleasure a day's ration of water and rice.

So the government creates a system of fear amongst patients and doctors, throws doctors in jail and pulls licenses for not drug testing, now theyre up in arms that some doctors are actually doing it? Whatever...

Just another anti-doctor hit-piece.

 

[Scorpion76]

I have a laboratory rep came to my office and introduce a lab share model just on private insured patients
he said their lab is a business objective is to provide toxicology and other drug screening, confirmation, and testing services, including DNA related screening, confirmation, and testing. its offers a private offering to physicians of 40 Class-A units of the company.

they also provided me with information from their lawyer stating
Based on the procedures described in the Proposed Business Model for referring a patient to Lab, the investor physicians will likely not be in violation of the statute because they will disclose their financial interest and advise the patient of their freedom of choice when deciding where to have their UDS done.

any thought, anyone heard of something like that, i know couple physician who use similar model on pain cram.

thx

 

[101N]

They have a point...

 

[Ducttape]

101, are you insinuating that use of UDS reduces rate of drug overdose?

in terms of the lab rat i mean lab rep, i would be very concerned about Stark violation. what their lawyer says is fluff and wont stand in a court of law. ultimately, their lawyer wont get fined, the physician will.

 

[Scorpion76]

Question Presented: Would the ownership of shares by the Pennsylvania licensed physicians as described in the Proposed Business Model violate any Federal law?

Brief Answer

Ownership by physicians as described in the Proposed Business Model will likely not violate any Federal law because none of the revenue will involve any Federal healthcare program dollars.

 

[emd123]

It's simple. Ask these questions of a good healthcare attorney. This area of law is complex.

 

[101N]

101, are you insinuating that use of UDS reduces rate of drug overdose?

in terms of the lab rat i mean lab rep, i would be very concerned about Stark violation. what their lawyer says is fluff and wont stand in a court of law. ultimately, their lawyer wont get fined, the physician will.

I'm just saying that ODDs and opioid addiction treatment admissions both fall of precipitously after age 65. So, if you
are going to use POC testing, this is the audience.

 

[Jcm800]

so we should test, but we should not have anyone make any money for doing. but we need to do it, and its only a problem if someone (especially us) makes any money doing what they want us to do anyway...

 

[Aether2000]

It should be ok to make a profit but there are limits. Why not charge $25 for an office visit and $1600 every 3 months for a uds? How much is too much to a captive clientelle?

 

[Scorpion76]

I did ask my lawyer and he said it should be ok. It's a physician owned model, so at the end of the year I will have a K1. They split 60/40. So physicians will get 40% of what the lab bring.

Was wondering if someone heard about it before and the good things they are in network with all insurance company. Pretty unique but it's too good to be truth I gues.

 

[hyperalgesia]

It should be ok to make a profit but there are limits. Why not charge $25 for an office visit and $1600 every 3 months for a uds? How much is too much to a captive clientelle?

captive clientele... you're making my mouth water...

 

[Kwijibo]

The physicians office should be able to bill for the Utox if the service is being provided in an ethical manner. The reimbursement for utox is not what many of you may think. In the past physicians were being reimbursed greatly for running these tests in the office, currently unless you have LCMS it is hard to make money with urines. Even with LCMS, the outlay is high (300K just for the machine) and there is uncertainty to whether or not these are going to continue to be reimbursed in the physician office setting. You also need high volume to make these worth it.

 

[lobelsteve]

The physicians office should be able to bill for the Utox if the service is being provided in an ethical manner. The reimbursement for utox is not what many of you may think. In the past physicians were being reimbursed greatly for running these tests in the office, currently unless you have LCMS it is hard to make money with urines. Even with LCMS, the outlay is high (300K just for the machine) and there is uncertainty to whether or not these are going to continue to be reimbursed in the physician office setting. You also need high volume to make these worth it.

Get 4 PA's, test every patient every month. Get them to see 30 patients per day. Run your codes and see how fast the machine is purchased.