Scott Becker Slams Study on Effect of Physician Ownership of ASCs and Hospitals

Written by Rob Kurtz | August 18, 2010

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A new study published in the Archives of Surgery attempts to show physicians with ownership in ASCs or specialty hospitals were more likely to provide arthroscopic knee surgery or carpal tunnel and rotator cuff surgical repair to patients than physicians who did not have such ownership interests.

The study's researchers say they analyzed five years of claims data from a large private insurer in Idaho to come to this conclusion, one that Scott Becker, JD, CPA, dismisses.

"This study is heavily biased and doesn't account for the increased convenience and the natural efficiencies and increases in production that come with the added access of a facility that is controlled by and caters to the physician," Mr. Becker says. "The author ought to disclose who is paying the author for the study. It is poor research couched in academic terms to try and prod a legislative agenda."

View the abstract of the physician ownership study.  

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