Well, actually I AM the CT private sector.
The problem is not the private sector or privately owned scanners but the conflict of interest in ordering high-priced procedures if the referring doctor himself gets a financial bonus every time he orders such a high-priced procedure.
It's like the radiologist getting a financial kickback every time he mentions that something on CT or MRI or X-ray should be followed by a surgical consult for physical exam or biopsy or colonoscopy by the surgeon. In such a case, some radiologists would have a shuttle service between their Imaging Center and the surgeon's office.
Likewise for referring doctors who are not radiologists that get a financial kickback for ordering expensive imaging studies.
In the early 1990's, our radiology group was in competition with another radiology group in town that had invited the neurologist and the orthopeadic surgeon in town to be "investors" in their CT and MRI business. The more CT's and MRI's the neurologist and the orthopeadic surgeon ordered, the more money they would have at the end of the year.
For an initial $10,000 "investment", these guys were getting almost $100,000 per year in "investment returns" (read "kickbacks") just for ordering MRI's and CT's like they were ordering beer at Oktoberfest.
Our group never did that. Out referrals came only from physicians that had no financial stake in our MRI or CT and would not profit from ordering unnecessary CT's and MRI's.
In the end, the Feds ordered the other radiology group to divest itself of their equipment due to the abuse. They ended up having to sell the equipment to a private HMO and working only for professional fees without technical component profits.
The newspaper article in the nearest major metropolitan area that described the case started like this, as I recall:
"Mrs. Jane Wilson called her orthopedic surgeon's office on the phone to make an appointment about some low lumbar pain she was having. Without examining Mrs. Wilson, seeing her or even talking to her on the phone, her orthopedic surgeon, Dr. John Doe, ordered a C-Spine MRI, a Thoracic-Spine MRI and a Lumbar-Spine MRI at Acme Imaging, Inc. The bill from Acme Imaging for the combined MRI's totaled a staggering $(X amount). Mrs. Wilson, who had no pain at all in the Thoracic-Spine or Cervical-Spine regions was later shocked to find that Dr. Doe had a financial interest in Acme Imaging and that the C-Spine and Thoracic-Spine MRI's contributed to his own income if not to adding any useful information about her lower lumbar pain."
It sounds like your competitor got what was deserved. It also sounds like your practice is one I would like and trust.
What I don’t like is the stereotype of business being inherently greedy and evil. I’m not saying you are doing that. With your anectode above that would be quite a stretch.
I own and operate a business and have seen some unethical operators get their just desserts. Businesses that don’t operate ethically don’t deserve to continue. But give them the benefit of the doubt until they demonstrate bad behaviour.