The problem of overuse is getting more attention than ever in the move toward greater value in health care. But overuse is no longer just an issue of cost. It is increasingly a fraud and abuse concern, and in sometimes surprising arenas. Cardiologists have been charged and convicted for over-stenting but over-stenting has been a dirty secret in cardiology for years. More surprising is that an oncologist in Michigan has been charged with administering medically
unnecessary chemotherapy. In a whistleblower lawsuit in Georgia, a different spin on overuse was presented where both a physician and the medical center where he practiced were charged with false claims based on his incompetence to perform procedures for which, it is alleged, the hospital should
never have granted him privileges. Now, the GAO has focused on the exponential increase in both radiation therapy for prostate cancer by urologists with a
financial interest in the radiation therapy center as well as
anatomic pathology services billed by urologists, dermatologists and gastroenterologists who had obtained the opportunity to self-refer. While the Stark statute was primarily aimed at overuse, self-referral and financial benefit are not the only motivators of overuse. Defensive medicine also makes the cut. As the house of medicine has, at long last, begun to address the problem of overuse in the
Choosing Wisely campaign providers who do not make the value of care a core value in their efforts to confront the changing environment, do so at their own peril from expanding fronts.