Quebec radiologists have been billing the provincial health insurance agency for analyzing coronary angiograms -- sometimes years after the procedures were carried out -- at a cost of $3 million Canadian per year ($2.4 million U.S.), according to a report by CBC News.
Radiologist interpretation of angiograms is no longer necessary due to technological advances such as digital imaging and real-time results, CBC said. But Radio-Canada's "Enquête" found that some radiologists in Quebec have been filing reports on coronary angiograms months and even years they've been performed, then billing for each one, according to the report.
"Enquête" inspected data from the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS), choosing at random 200 coronary angiograms performed between 2014 and 2016. It discovered that CHUS radiologists had filed reports on these studies 110 to 879 days after the procedures were completed.
Why would radiologists analyze coronary angiograms after the fact? Sometimes errors can be caught later, stated Dr. Vincent Olivia, president of the Quebec Radiologists Association, in the CBC report. But a delay of this magnitude is not helpful at least and unethical at most, CBC said.
