Today’s Managing Health Care Costs Number is $580 million
Another case of the medical system behaving badly.
The former chief financial officer of a Long Beach, California, hospital, two orthopedic surgeons, a chiropractor and a health care marketer have been charged with illegally referring more than 4,000 patients for spinal surgeries and generating more than $580 million in fraudulently submitted bills during an eight-year period Source
Back injuries are terrible – and spinal surgery is occasionally helpful –but often leads to lingering disability and trouble. Many estimate that between 1/3 and ½ of spinal surgery that is performed in the US should not have been performed.
It’s exasperating that there are physicians or a hospital that were paying for referrals. All are apparently pleading guilty and will serve jail time.
Atul Gawande had a great description of a second opinion service that saved a WalMart employee from unnecessary back surgery in the New Yorker this May.
