ASTRO applauds Maryland’s ruling to uphold patient choice
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) is very pleased with yesterday's ruling by the Maryland Court of Appeals preserving strong patient protections against abusive physician self-referral in radiation therapy and advanced diagnostic imaging.
(Media-Newswire.com) - The American Society for Radiation Oncology ( ASTRO ) is very pleased with yesterday's ruling by the Maryland Court of Appeals preserving strong patient protections against abusive physician self-referral in radiation therapy and advanced diagnostic imaging.
"Today's ruling represents a victory for patients in Maryland. We hope this decision will jump start congressional action to ensure that all Americans can make independent treatment decisions based on quality care, not perverse financial incentives," Laura I. Thevenot, ASTRO CEO, said.
ASTRO believes it is wrong to create business enterprises centered on rewarding physicians for making referrals, yet we are increasingly seeing business ventures designed to generate additional revenues within a group practice by incorporating radiation therapy. We believe these arrangements, allowed by the federal self-referral law's "in-office ancillary services exception" erode patient choice and can result in dramatic increases in one form of radiation therapy, while the use of other clinically appropriate, significantly less expensive treatments, such as radiation seed implants or even "watchful waiting," have declined or disappeared. This may also lead to unnecessary Medicare spending. ASTRO's position is that radiation therapy should be removed from the law's exception, unless provided by a robust multispecialty clinic.
In April 2010, Congress asked the Government Accountability Office to explore the clinical and economic impact of physician self-referral in radiation therapy. In December 2010, The Wall Street Journal published an investigation of certain practices that have used the federal exception to bring radiation therapy technology into their offices. The article found that their utilization rates for this form of radiation therapy for prostate cancer dramatically increased. Specifically, these practices had higher utilization rates than national norms, even among elderly men who likely derived no clinical benefit from external beam radiation. In addition, concerns were raised that patients were not informed of all of their treatment options.
"Clearly, the evidence is mounting that self-referral in radiation therapy is bad for cancer patients and bad for state and federal health care budgets. We look forward to working with Congress and other states this year to stop these growing self-referral abuses," Thevenot said.
Today's state appeals court's declaratory ruling in Potomac Valley Orthopaedic Associates v. Maryland State Board of Physicians affirms a lower court's decision against a challenge to the state's self-referral law, which prohibits self-referral for radiation therapy as well as MRI and CT scans. Today's ruling also upholds the decision by the Maryland State Board of Physicians and relies on legislative intent, attorney general opinions, and legislative action that supports broadly restricting self-referral for radiation therapy, as well as advanced diagnostic imaging.
ASTRO is the largest radiation oncology society in the world, with more than 10,000 members who specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. As the leading organization in radiation oncology, biology and physics, the Society is dedicated to improving patient care through education, clinical practice, advancement of science and advocacy. For more information on radiation therapy, visit www.rtanswers.org. To learn more about ASTRO, visit www.astro.org.
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