Kyruus conducted the survey among 100 specialists across 11 specialties. Findings from the survey are shown below.
- Seventy-five percent of specialists have received at least one “clinically inappropriate” referral in the past year.
- About 8 percent of all referrals are considered “clinically inappropriate,” which equates to 42 incorrectly matched patients to specialists per year and 19.7 million clinically inappropriate referrals in the U.S. each year.
- Eighty-seven percent of physicians believe referral misdirection happens when there is a lack of reliable information about other specialists.
- Insufficient information is prevalent in call centers (31 percent), referring offices (32 percent) or referring physicians themselves (62 percent).
- Fifteen percent of respondents said inappropriate referrals were a result of the referral process relying too heavily on personal relationships between physicians.
- Out of patients who are referred incorrectly, 63 percent are re-referred to more clinically suitable physicians, incurring an estimated $1.9 billion in lost wages and unnecessary co-pays annually.
- The remaining 37 percent who are not re-referred are instead managed by a clinically inappropriate physician, which could mean putting the quality of patients’ care at risk.
Editor’s note: Survey respondents were allowed to select more than one response.
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