MRI for Profit Scheme back in the spotlight
The FDA issued a press release on May 23, 2007 to ask manufacturers to include a new black box warning on the labeling of all gadolinium based contrast agents because of the risk of Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis. This NSF warning will likely bring into the spotlight the MRI for profit scheme revealed on January 17, 2007. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced that her office had intervened in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by John Donaldson in 2006 against more than 10 Chicago-area MRI centers over their payment of kickbacks to doctors in exchange for referring patients to the centers. According to the complaint, "Each participating MRI Service Center involved performs the subject MRI services and then engages in the making of illegal and unlawful kickbacks to the physicians from payments made by both Illinois citizen patients and their insurers." The kickbacks, the complaint alleges, provide a financial incentive for a physician to order unnecessary scan services, or excessive scan services, and thus bill insurers for unnecessary scans. The schemes, the lawsuit alleges, make it impossible for legitimate providers to engage in legitimate practice of providing MRI services and remain in business if the scheme and unlawful practice of paying kickbacks for patients is not stopped.
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