Physicians who billed for both technical and professional fees more frequently ordered cardiac stress tests for patients who underwent revascularization compared with physicians who only interpreted the tests or with physicians who didn’t bill for any part of the tests, based on a study published Nov. 9 in the
Journal of the American Medical Association. “The truism ‘if you provide a service, you’re more likely to provide a service’ apparently hasn’t changed over the years,” authors of an accompanying editorial wrote, noting that recent regulation may be changing utilization practices.
Written by Kaitlyn Dmyterko
For 22 years,
U.S. News & World Report has issued a report card grading the nation’s hospitals for patient care and acknowledging 50 hospitals as the best. This year, as in years past, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Mayo Clinic have been chosen as top performers for demonstrating superior care in at least six of the 16 specialties. Cleveland Clinic reclaims its position as number one for heart care for the 17th year in a row.
Self-referring physicians are 2.5 times more likely to order imaging exams on patients than physicians without financial stakes in imaging orders, resulting in an estimated $3.6 billion in additional healthcare costs each year, according to a study published in the July issue of the
Journal of the American College of Radiology.
RSS 
