American Academy of Emergency Medicine

Many physicians are manipulating reimbursement rules to get coverage they believe patients need, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. A nationwide survey of 1,124 practicing physicians revealed that 39% of respondents had sometimes, often, or very often used at least one of three ways to manipulate reimbursement rules. Those tactics are: exaggerating the severity of patients' conditions, changing patients' billing diagnoses, and reporting signs or symptoms that patients didn't have to help them get coverage for needed care. The article is on-line at http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v283n14/full/joc91752.html.

Source: AHA News Now, April 12, 2000