WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. Medicare is cracking down on a doctor practice known as "self-referral" as a way to rein in high costs, the Wall Street Journal says.
In a report published Monday, the newspaper said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is tightening its rules on physician self-referrals, where the physician has a financial interest in a particular test like an MRI scan or other medical procedure ordered for a patient.
The agency will also take a closer look at how doctors bill Medicare for scanning procedures done in their offices, WSJ said.
For example, the new rules -- which could take effect in November -- would prevent doctors in some cases from charging Medicare more than what it cost the doctor to perform the test, or what he or she paid someone else to do it.
The move is part of an effort to cut down on potentially unnecessary -- and costly -- diagnostic testing in order to save federal healthcare dollars, the report said.
The cost of medical imaging has risen 20 percent each year since 1999, WSJ said, making it one of Medicare's fastest rising expenditures.
What's more, the makers of medical scanners and other equipment are increasingly stressing to their doctor-customers the profit potential of leasing their own computer topography (CT) machines, for example, and referring their patients to have CT scans, the report noted.
