House Bill 1414: Patient Referrals for Radiation Therapy Services
Interesting Fact: If you are a cancer patient in Maryland, when you go to visit your private-practice Oncologist, he can administer chemotherapy to you.... but by law he or she cannot administer radiation therapy. It is strange but true.
A "self-referral" is defined as a doctor referring patients to him or herself (or to an associate from whom a financial benefit is received) for services not directly part of their own practice. Current law ban doctors from "self-referrals" for certain services because of the possibility of conflict-of-interest and over-prescription fraud. These services include MRI, CT-Scans and Radiation Therapy.
MRI and CT-Scan though are fundamentally different in one important way than Radiation Therapy. They are diagnostic tools whereas Radiation Therapy is a treatment. Radiation Therapy is a only given to patients who are known to have cancer and it has very significant side effects. MRI and CT-Scans can be given to literally anyone for almost any ailment. So the risk of over-prescription and fraud with Radiation Therapy is far less than with MRI and CT-Scan.
For this reason I have sponsored a bill House Bill 1414: "Patient Referrals for Radiation Therapy Services" that would allow Medical Oncologists to team up with Radiation Oncologists within the same office. This bill will increase the availability and accessibility of Radiation Therapy for Maryland's Cancer patients.
You can read the actual text of the bill by clicking here.
- Saqib
- Saqib
A "self-referral" is defined as a doctor referring patients to him or herself (or to an associate from whom a financial benefit is received) for services not directly part of their own practice. Current law ban doctors from "self-referrals" for certain services because of the possibility of conflict-of-interest and over-prescription fraud. These services include MRI, CT-Scans and Radiation Therapy.
MRI and CT-Scan though are fundamentally different in one important way than Radiation Therapy. They are diagnostic tools whereas Radiation Therapy is a treatment. Radiation Therapy is a only given to patients who are known to have cancer and it has very significant side effects. MRI and CT-Scans can be given to literally anyone for almost any ailment. So the risk of over-prescription and fraud with Radiation Therapy is far less than with MRI and CT-Scan.
For this reason I have sponsored a bill House Bill 1414: "Patient Referrals for Radiation Therapy Services" that would allow Medical Oncologists to team up with Radiation Oncologists within the same office. This bill will increase the availability and accessibility of Radiation Therapy for Maryland's Cancer patients.
You can read the actual text of the bill by clicking here.
- Saqib
- Saqib
posted by Saqib Ali at 1:37 PM
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