>Finally, the cardiologist you see in the office is almost certainly not doing stents for you as those are very distinct skillsets (in the US).
Umm, what? No. It's exceedingly rare for an interventional cardiologist in the US not to do office work. The average number of PCI/yr is like 50 or something. Plus if one spent all one's time in the cath lab, they'd have a spinal fusion, knee replacement, thyroid cancer, and cataracts.
But what you are trying to get at is that there is law about self-referral ("Stark law") but in reality there are exceptions that render it fairly useless
Umm, what? No. It's exceedingly rare for an interventional cardiologist in the US not to do office work. The average number of PCI/yr is like 50 or something. Plus if one spent all one's time in the cath lab, they'd have a spinal fusion, knee replacement, thyroid cancer, and cataracts.
But what you are trying to get at is that there is law about self-referral ("Stark law") but in reality there are exceptions that render it fairly useless