Efforts to Address the Problem of Physician Self-Referral

Abstract

The Health Policy Report by Iglehart (Dec. 19 issue)^* provides a detailed discussion of recent actions to limit the referral of patients to facilities in which the referring physician has an ownership interest. Most knowledgeable parties are concerned that this practice creates a potential conflict of interest at best, and serious overuse of medical services at worst. So far, the results of these efforts have been a legislative ban on self-referral by owners of clinical laboratories and the recently published safe-harbor regulations.