Medicare Fraud for lab kickbacks

[BU Pathology]

A lab director and other plead guilty to committing medicare fraud.

This is good news for honest pathologists and lab directors. Pathologists need to focus on providing the best diagnosis rather than generating the most revenue.

More on the story is here:

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2..._to_taking_bribes_in_parsippany_lab_scam.html

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[scienceguy19]

How is this good news? Doesn't this just make labs look evil and greedy? Hopefully some government official won't read the news and think pathologists need more reimbursement cuts.

 

[LADuck00]

Jersey...

 

[Crossed Path]

A lab director and other plead guilty to committing medicare fraud.

This is good news for honest pathologists and lab directors. Pathologists need to focus on providing the best diagnosis rather than generating the most revenue.

More on the story is here:

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2..._to_taking_bribes_in_parsippany_lab_scam.html

BU Pathology, you seem like a generally decent person, and I respect the fact that you are honest regarding your identity on this board - but I'm calling shenanigans on your comment. You cite a story of someone clearly committing fraud: accepting "$1,500 each month under a 'sham consulting agreement' to refer blood specimens... The 60-year-old accepted the payments in exchange for filling out a survey that Fischgrund said he knew was only a method to cover up the payouts...". And from that, you conclude that pathologists don't need to focus on generating "the most revenue", just providing the best diagnosis. Seriously? That is a ridiculous, straw-man argument.

I know dozens of honest pathologists running honest labs who are struggling to bring in revenue to support the lab, their employees, and their own salaries in the worsening reimbursement and regulatory environment. Quality of life, independence of physician laboratory operators, and salaries are declining. I'm sure countless people on this board know people in a similar situation, if not themselves. To conclude from the scamster in this article that pathologists shouldn't be concerned about revenue is frankly absurd. Maybe if I were near or at the apex of my career, likely with enough banked to feel comfortable, I'd see it more optimistically. But many of us still have to worry about both providing the best diagnosis and generating revenue. I assume that even you are held accountable for the bottom line of your department, in addition to making sure they provide the best diagnoses.

This is a quintessential example of how pathology leadership is out of touch with what is happening in the field and what pathologists are experiencing. But perhaps this is good news for academic pathologists and lab directors. You need to focus on providing enough federally-subsidized residents and research dollars to support your department rather than being concerned about the future of your field or your trainees.

 

[Thrombus]

A lab director and other plead guilty to committing medicare fraud.

This is good news for honest pathologists and lab directors. Pathologists need to focus on providing the best diagnosis rather than generating the most revenue.

More on the story is here:

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2..._to_taking_bribes_in_parsippany_lab_scam.html

This is horrible for honest pathologists as the public and regulators will now lump us all with them. Just look at how the President passed a whole litany of garbage onto us causing millions to lose their health insurance because he thought "doctors would rather cut legs off than to treat diabetes".

Additionally, YOU are on here trying to generate revenue for your department by recruiting subsidized residents that the field does not need nor want. Our margins are being crushed thanks to the oversupply and race to the bottom creating schemes to launder specimens from one lab to the next, and to exploit every specimen for all that they can. The honest guy who plays by the rules and cares for his patient and his patient's pocketbook is the guy that LOSES thanks to this setup!

In the end, the patient LOSES access to quality medicine as honest, hard-working, conscientious people are driven from the field being commoditized by academic driven oversupply.

 

[Pathwrath]

Pathologists need to focus on providing the best diagnosis rather than generating the most revenue.http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2..._to_taking_bribes_in_parsippany_lab_scam.html

This is applicable only in cloistered academic sinecures, and even then only to those fortunate enough to not be concerned with the finances. Revenue keeps my lab open and allows me to perform the tests that render the "best diagnosis". I do not have the luxury of focusing on diagnosis to the exclusion of maximizing my bottom line. Nice work if you can get it.

 

[Torsed]

The lab owner, David Nicoll is not even a physician nor a pathologist? Do not see him on the NJ board of licensure site. Interesting story none the less.

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

If you work in pathology you are FORCED to engage in client billing and other inducements. The oversupply of pathologists has created a lot of desperation and people are engaging in all kinds of schemes to get business. If you look below the surface of most labs, you could find arrangements that one could argue are fraud. It's like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.

End the pathologist oversupply now!