Fraud and abuse of government medical benefit programs by psychiatrists

Abstract

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.