Increased cost and rates of use in the California workers' compensation system as a result of self-referral by physicians

Article Abstract:

Self-referral may increase the inappropriate use of certain types of health services and increase the cost of medical care. Self referral is the practice by physicians of referring patients to health care facilities in which they have a financial interest. A study compared the number of referrals under the workers' compensation program in California for physical therapy, psychiatric evaluation and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by physicians with a financial interest in health care facilities with those who did not own the facility (the independent-referral group). Physicians in the self-referral group referred significantly more patients for physical therapy, compared to those in the independent-referral group. The cost of treating physical therapy patients was lower in the self-referral group, but the cost of psychiatric services was higher. The self-referral group requested more unnecessary MRIs than the independent-referral group.

Economic aspects, Physicians, Medical professions, Medical referral, Workers' compensation

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Racial trends in the use of major procedures among the elderly

Article Abstract:

Data for men and women enrolled in Medicare from 1992 through 2001on annual age-standardized rates of receipt of nine surgical procedures is examined to show disparities in the rates at which they were performed in AfricanAmerican and in white patients. The results reveal no evidence for the decade of the 1990s, either nationally or locally, that efforts to eliminate racial disparities in the use of high-cost surgical procedures were successful.

United Kingdom, Public affairs, Labor Distribution by Employer, Social aspects, Care and treatment, Statistics, Aged patients, Elderly patients, Racism, Medicare

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