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What do you risk when you go to see some random doctor whose advert you've seen?
In this case, according to ProPublica, quite literally life, limb and bankruptcy. To move vascular procedures out of expensive hospitals, the government turbocharged payments to doctors’ offices. Instead of saving money, it started a boom that is making doctors rich and putting patients in danger.
In the suburbs of Maryland, Dr. Jeffery Dormu’s presence is hard to miss. He’s a regular on the local TV station, which has featured him and his practice five times over the past five years. And he smiles down from an electronic billboard outside a three-story vascular center he calls The Watcher. “It has a biblical reference, which is to watch over the community,” he said at its 2018 opening. In response to the country’s “tragedy of cardiovascular disease,” the center trademarked the phrase “vascular devastation,” a slogan frequently invoked in its marketing, along with a claim to have “saved over 34,000 lives and limbs.” [[SNIP]]
But a ProPublica analysis of CMS data suggests that if the agency had reviewed its own figures, it would have discovered that Dormu was part of a small pool of physicians performing a disproportionate number of treatments. From 2017 to 2021, the analysis shows, the top 5% of doctors conducting atherectomies — about 90 physicians overall — accounted for more than a third of all procedures and government payments, totaling nearly a billion dollars.
Near the top of the list sits Dormu, logging more atherectomies — and making more money from them — than almost every other doctor in America. [[SNIP]]
Instead of saving money, the government started a boom.
Atherectomies increased by 60% from 2011 to 2014; Medicare’s overall costs for peripheral vascular treatments climbed by nearly half a billion dollars, or 18%....
https://www.propublica.org/article/maryland-dormu-minimally-invasive-vascular-medicare-medicaid
In the suburbs of Maryland, Dr. Jeffery Dormu’s presence is hard to miss. He’s a regular on the local TV station, which has featured him and his practice five times over the past five years. And he smiles down from an electronic billboard outside a three-story vascular center he calls The Watcher. “It has a biblical reference, which is to watch over the community,” he said at its 2018 opening. In response to the country’s “tragedy of cardiovascular disease,” the center trademarked the phrase “vascular devastation,” a slogan frequently invoked in its marketing, along with a claim to have “saved over 34,000 lives and limbs.” [[SNIP]]
But a ProPublica analysis of CMS data suggests that if the agency had reviewed its own figures, it would have discovered that Dormu was part of a small pool of physicians performing a disproportionate number of treatments. From 2017 to 2021, the analysis shows, the top 5% of doctors conducting atherectomies — about 90 physicians overall — accounted for more than a third of all procedures and government payments, totaling nearly a billion dollars.
Near the top of the list sits Dormu, logging more atherectomies — and making more money from them — than almost every other doctor in America. [[SNIP]]
Instead of saving money, the government started a boom.
Atherectomies increased by 60% from 2011 to 2014; Medicare’s overall costs for peripheral vascular treatments climbed by nearly half a billion dollars, or 18%....
https://www.propublica.org/article/maryland-dormu-minimally-invasive-vascular-medicare-medicaid
It is comforting to know that such abuses will be addressed by our elected Congressional representatives. Especially those who, such as Florida Senator Rick Scott, have real expertise to bring to the table.
You may recall that this fine Gentleman was CEO of the Columbia/HCA, hospital corporation which federal prosecutors discovered was committing massive Medicare and Medicaid fraud through unlawful billing practices. Somehow, he personally escaped being held in any way responsible.
Does this remind anyone of Enron?
Formerly it was considered unethical for doctors to advertise. It might be well to think twice before going to see a physician whom you see on billboards.
