I am not, and would not ever try to justify bad medicine and overuse of testing. That said, I would like to know the reasons and circumstances in which this occurred, and what reasons the physicians involved gave.
Generally, a non-radiologist orders the test, and a radiologist evaluates the need, indication, and whether or not the test ordered will answer the question being asked. It's illegal for physicians to receive kick-backs for referrals, including referrals for testing or imaging. So, if the radiologist was a greedy and unethical person, the referring physician would still generally have to OK the additional imaging, and would have no reason to do so financially.
What I wonder is whether or not there are other imaging modalities readily available at the institutions that are doing multiple CT scans. If MRI is not readily available, perhaps the impetus to do CT scans with and without I.V. contrast is higher.
The above aside, the rates for multi-CT studies in some of these institutions seems very excessive, and the reasons for this should be made clear to rule out medicare abuse.
I will, however, reserve judgment until more details are available.
Sounds to me like they are over billing. Doubtful if the person actually got the scans.
My mother was a breast cancer patient and it metasticized into a brain tumor. She was on Meicare and was treated at our great cancer facility herefor years before she finally died.
She had a cat scan every 6 months. Never had one twice in the same day.
jeez....typos. Medicare
The Stark loophole allows non radiologists to have CT and other imaging equipment in their offices. Some of the not egregious casework self-referral comes from cardiologists ordering CTs on their own scanners, orthopedists ordering MRI on their own scanners and urologists ordering ultrasounds on their machines. Hopefully after these many studies are done a radiologist will read them but not always