Archive Report
Archive Report
New Drive Against Unethical Practices
Commercial Abuses by Doctors and Surgeons
The medical profession is making a concerted drive against frauds perpetrated on the sick by im-posters and by dishonest or irresponsible practitioners within its own ranks. The American College of Surgeons, at its clinical congress in New York the last week in September, announced a renewed effort to stamp out certain widespread practices which it deems unethical. The surgeons took particular exception to “fee-splitting” and “ghost surgery”—practices which are condemned with equal vigor by the American Medical Association.
Fee-splitting involves payment by a medical specialist of a commission to the doctor who refers a patient to him. Ghost surgery is the practice of secretly assigning an operation to a surgeon who does not enter the operating ...