But in an increasingly common practice that some medical experts call drive-by doctoring, assistants, consultants and other hospital employees are charging patients or their insurers hefty fees. They may be called in when the need for them is questionable. And patients usually do not realize they have been involved or are charging until the bill arrives. ..“The idea of having an assistant in the O.R. has become an opportunity to make up for surgical fees that have been slashed,” said Dr. Abeel A. Mangi, a professor of cardiac surgery at Yale, who said the practice had become commonplace. “There’s now a whole cadre of people out there who do not have meaningful appointments as attending surgeons, so they do assistant work.” In Mr. Drier’s case, each surgeon billed for each step of the procedure. Dr. Tindel billed $74,000 for removing two disks and an additional $50,000 for placing the hardware that stabilized Mr. Drier’s spine. Dr. Mu billed $67,000 and $50,000 for those tasks. Mr. Sullivan, who had the emergency back surgery, discovered charges from more than 10 providers in the 48 hours after his operation. (The surgery involved simply trimming a herniated disk in his lower back.)...He was puzzled by $679 in occupational therapy charges involving the delivery of a device to help him put on his socks, which he never used.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 03:13:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015