Greedy Trial Lawyer
Docs & Hospitals Need More Joint Venture Opportunities - Give Me A Break!
Category: Gaming The System
The United States needs more money-making joint ventures between doctors and hospitals. That is the message Dr. Richard L. Reece over at MEDINNOVATIONBLOG is pushing this week.
Medicare To Ban Doctor Referrals to Hospital-M.D. Joint Ventures
The public thinks hospitals and physicians ought to cooperate and collaborate for the common good of patients and the community.Everybody, it seems, except Medicare officials, Office of the Inspector General, and Representative Pete Stark who are bent on preventing hospitals and doctors from innovating and "colluding" for mutual profitability.
At least, that's what a Sept. 12 WSJ piece "Medicare Moves to Cut 'Self-Referral' Practice: Proposed New Rules the Rise of Doctors Sending Patients to Centers They Own." Physicians, McKinsey data indicates, are profiting to the tune of $8 billion/year by sending patients to facilities doctors own, often because of increased efficiencies and excellent outcomes achieved by focusing on specialized procedures.
Not so, says Medicare, profit-mongering doctors are referring to themselves and doing unnecessary procedures because of their ownership stake and "creating incentives for over-utilization and corrupting medical diagnosis." That is the main reason why, Medicare says, the money expended on imaging(CT and MRI) increased from $9.6 billion in 2003 to $13.7 billion in 2006.
In any event, Medicare is taking dead aim to joint ventures between doctors and hospitals and the shared investments and profits that ensue from MRIs, CTs, endoscopies, and outpatient and diagnostic surgery units.
To Medicare officials and their legal advisors, "pursuing the perfect" is preferable to "preserving the good" that could be achieved by realistic collaborative joint ventures.
From MEDINNOVATIONBLOG
I recall being approached some years back about a realistic collaborative joint venture that would have allowed me, a greedy trial lawyer, to partner with some doctor-investors in an MRI facility. The idea was that I and the docs could assure a steady stream of patients for diagnostic testing which would make the facility extremely profitable. I was told that this was being done all over the country. I passed on the opportunity because it had the odor of an illegal or unethical scheme to milk the government or insurance companies.
I don't know how many profit-mongering doctors ignored the odor and joint-ventured MRI facilities. But, I would suspect those who did uncovered a greater need for MRI studies in their practices. Not many investors are willing to sit idly by as their enterprise slowly dips into the red. Especially when all God's children could use an MRI now and then anyway.
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Comments
GTL: Actually, I think you are a hybrid who can facilitate either Blamers OR Fixers.
There is most definitely a need for lawsuits in some cases. But I think the lengthy legal process forces Blamers to stay in their blaming mode far longer than they might otherwise. (They need to retain their blaming edge to succeed.) In many cases they probably THINK they will get closure when the case ends, but I'm sure that's a rare outcome.
Where you could make a huge difference to everyone's benefit, especially your clients', would be to encourage them to become Fixers along the way. They can use their time and interest to be Fixers before a lawsuit is completed, and if they win an award, (depending, of course, on whether that award needs to be used for the person who was hurt by the medical system) maybe they can use part of that award to do some Fixing.
Even you, the GTL -- why not use the concept in court? What about suing in two parts -- one for the harmed person and one for fixing the person/system that did the harm?
Alas, I do have trouble getting my arms around lawsuits as a vehicle for fixing, even though I do see their value within a system of checks and balances.
But I think you could shift them in the fixing direction. Give it a shot, GTL!
Trisha Torrey
EveryPatientsAdvocate.com
Posted by: Trisha Torrey at September 15, 2007 07:24 AM