Pathology Rorts Rising - Doctors
THE SUNDAY AGE
Saturday July 30, 1994
A DRAMATIC rise in the use of pathology services in the past year has sparked renewed allegations of widespread over-servicing and corruption in Australia's $1billion-a-year private pathology industry.
Medicare benefits paid for pathology tests have risen by $70million to $703 million in the past 12 months. Up to $100 million of that may be due to overservicing and illegal inducements, a pathology industry expert said last week.
The Australian Medical Association vice-president, Dr David Weedon, said corruption in the industry was ``alive and well".
``There are still kickbacks going on in pathology in Australia by some practices," he said. A Melbourne GP said: ``Some people are simply using out and out fraud."
The Federal Government is set to crack down on medical corruption with the introduction of tough new investigative powers for the Health Insurance Commission, which runs Medicare.
The most common inducements allegedly offered to doctors by unethical laboratories are company-paid nursing sisters in doctors' surgeries and the payment of ``broom-closet leases" of space in surgeries for rents of more than $20,000 a year.
The AMA president, Dr Brendan Nelson, said he had been told of pathology companies renting ``the bottom drawer of a desk" in a doctor's surgery for $2000 a month.
Dr Weedon said nursing sisters were provided to surgeries ostensibly to collect samples. ``But when they're not busy collecting pathology they're filing and doing other routine jobs for the surgery. In other words, they're providing a half-time employee free of cost."
Other inducements said to be offered include computers, software, fax machines, televisions and, in some cases, cars, holidays and cash payments.
The main concern in the industry remains overservicing, with less than 20 per cent of Australia's GPs ordering more than 40 per cent of all pathology. It is claimed that up to two-thirds of high ordering is induced.
Mr Ed Wilson, a consultant in pathology to the HIC, said that overservicing and inducements were practised by only a small minority of companies and GPs and to a lesser extent in Victoria than most other states. But, he said, they were on the rise in Victoria.
It is believed that the HIC and the Federal Police are investigating up to seven cases of corrupt behavior connected to the private pathology industry. Neither the HIC nor the police would confirm this.
© 1994 THE SUNDAY AGE