Old news

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Still more illegal kickbacks for referrals.

Hospitals Accused Of Paying Doctors Large Kickbacks In Quest For Patients - KFF Health News

Hospitals are eager to get particular specialists on staff because they bring in business that can be highly profitable. But those efforts, if they involve unusually high salaries or other enticements, can violate federal anti-kickback laws.

khn.org

 

[PieOHmy]

Old news correct. I have always said this, our (physicians) should be divorced from any hospital dealings. Period.
The Affordable Care Act put these physician buy out practices on steroids.
Clear violation to me, and patients do not benefit

 

[PieOHmy]

This is probably one of the most important lawsuits going on right now in healtcare. Can change the relationship between the doctors and the hospital which should be completely completely separate.

 

[ChiDO]

It's sad that many physicians are selling out their practices and so many young Drs want to be employeed.

One of the hospitals in our town has hired 3 new ortho surgeons because our group refused to sell a part of the practice and surgery center. Now they basically have all their pcps self refer to their own ortho surgeons.

It's strained the relationship significantly. Anytime we talk with a hospital in town, their only way to make any deal is always is selling a %% to them.

 

[deleted50478]

It's sad that many physicians are selling out their practices and so many young Drs want to be employeed.

One of the hospitals in our town has hired 3 new ortho surgeons because our group refused to sell a part of the practice and surgery center. Now they basically have all their pcps self refer to their own ortho surgeons.

It's strained the relationship significantly. Anytime we talk with a hospital in town, their only way to make any deal is always is selling a %% to them.

Young doctors don’t want to be employed. There just aren’t good options for ownership in most areas.

 

[maxxor]

This is happening in Radiology too. It’s a structural risk to own scanners anymore, because the hospital will buy the referrers and order them to scan their patients at hospital scanners.

I’m looking for a job now and it’s hard to find private jobs that aren’t in discussion to sell. Radpartners bought 30 practices (some really big ones) since October 2018...

 

[Booze Aldrin]

What a bunch of horse****. They're basically trying to make it illegal to pay a premium to doctors to take up jobs in hard to recruit locations. As far as I understand there is no evidence whatsoever that inappropriate referrals were made. The entire premise of this lawsuit it that the doctors in question "make too much money" and that in itself is evidence of chicanery! The Stark laws have become an absolute farce. It's no longer about banning backroom dealing, now it's somehow become illegal for a hospital to pay you a penny more than you generate via billing, even if the value you provide to the hospital is worth several times your billing and their entire operation would grind to a halt without you.

From what I've seen, employed physicians, whether they get paid a million dollars or a hundred thousand dollars, mostly refer their patients within the hospital system that employs them because that is what they know and also because it's usually more convenient for patients to get their care at one place as much as possible. It's absolutely ludicrous that a doctor's W2 salary is now being used as a de facto proxy for Stark law violations and lawsuits are being filed with no evidence of specific wrongdoing whatsoever.

Don't think for a second that this trend of the government suing hospitals for paying their employed physicians too much is somehow a welcome development that will reinvigorate private practice. Private practice isn't coming back. The government has legislated it out of existence and all the factors making it nearly impossible are very much still in effect. Employment will continue to be the only option, except now the feds have put a cap on how much you can earn as a wage slave. That's, like, not better. The federal government has literally began to sue our employers for paying us more than the government thinks we should be "allowed" to make. Outrageous and terrifying.

(Hospitals love this by the way. Usually when a certain type of worker are scarce and in demand, you have to pay them a lot of money to get them to work for you rather than your competitors. Needless to say, hospital CEOs are pretty damn happy that the government has stepped in and basically capped the salary offers doctors can receive, thus placing an artificial ceiling on our salaries by federal fiat.)

 

[maxxor]

How are these inducements different from when an anesthesia group gets a stipend?

 

[deleted171991]

How are these inducements different from when an anesthesia group gets a stipend?

Anesthesia groups don't bring patients to the hospitals and don't refer patients to other doctors/facilities.

 

[sbhfl]

"An internal memorandum by the hospitals’ chief operating officer quoted in Longo’s lawsuit said that the labor and delivery practice where Swamy worked was the biggest money loser among the specialty divisions and that her salary made it “almost impossible for this practice to show a bottom line profit.” But the memo went on to conclude that Wheeling should “continue to absorb the practice loss” because it “would not want to endanger the significant downstream revenue that she produces” for the hospital: nearly $4.6 million a year, according to the lawsuit."

So what does the government want? To get rid of Swany and hang this rural community's mother's out to dry? I hope the government has evidence that Swany was referring within her system more than some other reasonable ob gyn would. Because otherwise, I don't see a problem with paying somebody extra to go to an under-served area. If these were in fact reasonable referrals, the government is just punishing what happens when a system expands to the boonies-- people get more access to care.

 

[chocomorsel]

So their large salaries are considered a "kickback" from the hospital?
How is this any different than recruiting bright people in the business or legal world? You recruit people to grow your business and ultimately increase your profit margin. Isn't that the whole point of capitalism?
I don't see the problem in this and the government for some reason seems to always to want to go after doctors. Maybe because the government is made mostly of lawyers.
How much are th

Old news correct. I have always said this, our (physicians) should be divorced from any hospital dealings. Period.
The Affordable Care Act put these physician buy out practices on steroids.
Clear violation to me, and patients do not benefit

So please explain yourself. Where are physicians suppose to take care of their patients when they need admitting?

 

[anbuitachi]

Wait so what are hospital employees supposed to do? Order tests to be done at an outside facility??? I think this is pretty stupid. It's one thing if excess test is ordered for profit, another if legit tests are ordered at teh hospital. And if a physician is generating 10M in revenue for the hospital appropriately, why cant the physicians salary be high?? Government regulations to screw doctors is insane in this country.

The way i see it, it's just lawyers trying to profit as usual

 

[ryanjmy]

What’s wrong with a cv surgeon in BFE making 770k? Seems standard to me.

 

[maxxor]

Anesthesia groups don't bring patients to the hospitals and don't refer patients to other doctors/facilities.

But I don't see how it is any different from a hospital subsidizing a specialist who allows them to keep some critical service line open. Anesthesia's presence allows surgery to occur.

I view these lawsuits as a new variety of Stark-like enforcement. The problem is that since modern medical education has embraced the idea that doctors shouldn't make money, now the government views anything that makes us money as a Stark violation implicitly. The Stark laws need to go; they are massively anti-physician and prevent physicians from referring to benefit themselves, but simultaneously allow hospitals to employ physicians and self-direct those referrals.

 

[Merely]

This is such a bs lawsuit wtf