{"id":138,"date":"2013-11-05T09:29:15","date_gmt":"2013-11-05T14:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leiferreport.com\/?p=138"},"modified":"2013-11-05T09:29:15","modified_gmt":"2013-11-05T14:29:15","slug":"strip-mall-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leifer.com\/?p=138","title":{"rendered":"Strip Mall Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"physician<\/a>Coming soon to a strip mall near you, Shop & Glow<\/strong>, the newest addition to the burgeoning collection of outpatient medical facilities in your market. Shop & Glow<\/strong> offers the latest and greatest in radiation therapy designed to nuke those nasty tumors deep within your body. Plus, it offers a more comfortable environment than you will find down the street at Quik Zap<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If this sounds far-fetched, think again. Sans the marketing hyperbole, this type of rampant proliferation of medical technology into the more affluent suburbs is happening on a seemingly daily basis. It\u2019s all part of the feeding frenzy in medicine.<\/p>\n

With the nation\u2019s healthcare bill approaching $2.8 trillion, there are plenty of providers lining up at the trough to be fed. After all, why be just a doc when you can be an entrepreneur raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in technical fees?<\/p>\n

Such behavior on the part of physicians, who are eager to capture a bit more of the pie, costs us dearly. It raises the overall cost of healthcare, and arguably diminishes the quality in some settings.<\/p>\n

Research Data Supports Allegations of Over-Utilization<\/h2>\n

Numerous research studies conducted over the past two decades have shown the pervasive over-utilization of expensive medical services when physician ownership is involved. The latest such study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine<\/i>, focuses on the excessive use of radiation therapy by urologists who own their own centers: \u201cThe study showed that ownership of intensity-modulated radiation therapy services increased use of the treatment to a dramatic degree compared with treatment use by urologists who do not own intensity-modulated radiation therapy services.\u201d\u00a0 <\/a>The motto for such facilities could easily be:\u00a0Why provide only 35 fractions of radiation when Medicare will pay for 40?<\/i><\/p>\n

Few, if any, of these centers offer integrated care in which the skills and knowledge of radiation oncologists and medical oncologists, working hand-in-hand, ensure proper treatment. For some patients, such as colon cancer patients who are receiving chemo and radiation concurrently, such coordinated care can help avoid serious problems\u2026something not found at Shop & Glow<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Hopefully you will never need radiation therapy. If you, or someone you love, do need such a service, ask your referring physician if they have an ownership interest in the facility that\u00a0they are recommending.\u00a0 Also find out if it is staffed by a complement of both medical and radiation oncologists. With the answers in hand, you will be one step closer to making an informed decision.<\/p>\n

Author Christine Cassel, M.D., reminded us, \u201cMedicine is, at its center, a moral enterprise grounded in a covenant of trust. Today, this covenant of trust is significantly threatened. From within there is growing legitimation of the physician\u2019s materialistic self-interest; from without, for-profit forces press the physician into the role of commercial agent to enhance the profitability of health care organizations.\u201d\u00a0 (Cassell March 15, 1996)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more information on the author, visit our health care consulting web-site<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming soon to a strip mall near you, Shop & Glow, the newest addition to the burgeoning collection of outpatient medical facilities in your market. Shop & Glow offers the latest and greatest in radiation therapy designed to nuke those nasty tumors deep within your body. Plus, it offers a more comfortable environment than you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15,20,24],"tags":[91,99,100,108],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthcare","category-outpatient-centers-healthcare","category-physician-ownership","category-radiation-therapy","tag-medical-costs","tag-physician-greed","tag-physician-ownership-2","tag-radiation-therapy-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leifer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leifer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leifer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leifer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leifer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/leifer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leifer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leifer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leifer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}