Am J Psychiatry 1985; 142:231-234
Copyright © 1985 by American Psychiatric Association
Fraud and abuse of government medical benefit programs by psychiatrists
G Geis, P Jesilow, H Pontell and MJ O'Brien
Government rosters of physicians suspended from the Medicare and Medicaid
programs because of fraud and abuse indicate that psychiatrists form a
disproportionately large segment of the total. Of the factors contributing
to this situation, the most notable is that because psychiatrists charge
for time rather than for services, they are more readily apprehended if
they violate the rules. The authors speculate on whether in fact
psychiatrists break the law more than physicians in other-specialties or
whether the statistics are purely artifactual.
