• Government
• Profession
• Business
• Opinion
• Health

• Health reform
• H1N1
• P4P
• EMRs
• Medicare
• Liability
• AMA House
• » More

• Book Excerpt
• Business Pitch
• Meetings
• » More

• Contract Language
• Ethics Forum
• In the Courts
• Practice Management
• Technically Speaking
• » More

• Issue dates
• Regions
• Health plans
• Sections
• News briefs
• Columns
• Editorials
• Letters
• Writers
• Other years

• Search tips
• E-mail alert
• Radio
• RSS
• Mobile
• Subscribe
• Institutions
• Staff directory
• Advertising
• Permissions
• Reprints
• News media
• Site guide
• Useful links
• About
• Premium
• Contact

Disclosure an important step in patient referral

While not all states require you tell patients about any financial interest in ancillary services, experts say it's a wise move.

By Mike Norbut, amednews staff. Jan. 23, 2006.

• PRINT|
• E-MAIL|
• RESPOND|
• REPRINTS|
• SHARE

Notifying your patients of any financial interest you have in a service they may be referred to can not only help provide another layer of liability protection, but it also can be a good business move, experts said.

Asking patients to sign a form stating they were notified is a wise practice, attorneys said. AMA policy also states physicians "must disclose" their ownership interest in a health care facility or service.

"You're protecting yourself a little from bad care lawsuits," said Lisa Sooter, an attorney with Stewart Stimmel LLP, a health care law firm based in Dallas. "You don't want patients to say, 'You referred me, but you wouldn't have if you didn't have an ownership interest.' "

Often, physicians find that when they disclose their financial interest and offer a list of competitors in the area that offer the same service, the patients will want to go to the physician-owned facility, Sooter said. If the patient trusts the physician and recognizes the practice's strong reputation, it can be advantageous to disclose your financial relationship without trying to sell your services.

"The reality is, the patients want to go to a facility where they believe their physician has something to say about the quality of care," Sooter said.

Stark "self-referral" laws, which are pursued in civil court, generally prohibit physicians from referring Medicare or Medicaid patients to a facility for "designated health services" -- most laboratory or diagnostic services offered by a hospital or clinic -- if the physician has a financial interest in that particular facility.