The Maryland State Court of Appeals has ruled against the practice of self-referral of advanced medical imaging and radiation therapy, reaffirming the state's physician self-referral law, according to the American College of Radiology (ACR) of Reston, VA.
On January 24, the Court of Appeals upheld a trial court's ruling that the state Board of Physicians correctly interpreted the 1993 statute as applied to situations in which self-referring orthopedic physicians refer patients for MRI, CT, and radiation therapy services.
The ruling is the latest in a saga that began in 2006, when a group of orthopedic surgeons, urologists, and emergency physicians sued Maryland's state Board of Physicians, claiming that it misread how the law applied to various self-referral MRI arrangements. After a 2007 trial court ruling that said the board had properly interpreted the self-referral law, this group appealed.
In this latest decision, the Maryland State Court of Appeals ruled that the state Board of Physicians was entitled to interpret and apply the self-referral statute. It also clarified that the law's "direct supervision" exception, which is limited to referrals to "outside entities," requires that the referring physician be present in the treatment area when the service is being performed -- and must personally provide that service or directly supervise it, the ACR said.
Related Reading
ACR: Maryland self-referral case in appeal, October 23, 2008
Stark, raving mad? Physicians say Maryland's self-referral laws too broad, January 15, 2008
Cardiologists, orthopods boost imaging use and adoption rates, studies find, November 26, 2007
CMS to delay portion of Stark III, November 20, 2007
Same-specialty referring physicians use imaging more frequently, study says, November 8, 2007
Copyright © 2011 AuntMinnie.com
