When Medicare was first approved, many doctors (especially in Miami) opened clinics where they would have patients come in for no real reason, and then bill for a visit even if they did not see a doctor. I once met a physician who was "proud" to tell me he was generating over a million dollars in revenue working only 3 days a week!
Currently many physicians move from helping patients, to opening pain clinics, weight loss, or cosmetic centers.
Now, entrepreneurs have found a way to warp a good rule in the ACA into medically useless profit centers.
As reported in the New York Times:
The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to pay for obesity screening and, for some patients, counseling. This provision, according to the Times, has "created a financial opportunity for a corner of the diet industry that has often operated on the fringe of the medical establishment: for-profit diet clinics overseen by doctors."
Physician oversight at many of these clinics, the Times contends, simply means reviewing patient charts remotely, while assistants without much training do most of the counseling. In addition, unproven — and even dis-proven — weight-loss methods are often used. For example, a Long Island weight-loss clinic advertises vitamin injections to increase metabolism. The physician at the clinic's helm "acknowledged that the treatments are not scientifically proven, but he said they do not hurt, and patients have come to expect them as an option," the Times reports.
In a separate report, the Times also reports the continues use of an amphetamine like drug, phentermine (which in my opinion should be off the market) for weight loss; in spite of its effects not being long lasting and many dangers.
The political climate, probably influenced by money, has not allowed proper oversight if these abuses. It is a sorry state.
Clinics
Phentermine
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