Are doctors ripping off patients by owning and overusing imaging machines?

Merrill Goozner argues that they are:

According to Laurence Baker, a professor of health services research at Stanford University, the number of MRI scans ordered by orthopedists soared from 46 per 1,000 episodes of care in 1999, when the machine purchasing explosion took off, to 72 per 1,000 episodes of care in 2005. Neurologists ordered 148 MRI images per 1,000 episodes in 1999 compared to 183 per 1,000 physician visits in 2005.

This latest study confirmed an analysis performed by the Medicare Payments Advisory Commission. In its June 2009 report to Congress, government-funded researchers found that spending on imaging services for the average senior citizen grew twice as fast as the cost of physician services between 2002 and 2007, with the highest growth rates occurring in offices where physicians owned the machines.

“There are reasons to be concerned that some of the increased use in recent years may not be appropriate, which contributes to Medicare’s growing financial burden on taxpayers and beneficiaries,” the report concluded.

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I spoke this week with Bruce Hillman, a professor of radiology at the University of Virginia and co-author with Jeff Goldsmith of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: How Medical Imaging is Reshaping Healthcare.” He estimates that Medicare could save at least $5 billion a year – about a third the cost of keeping physician salaries at their current levels – by reining in inappropriate use of imaging services.