SPEC Chiropractic Practice Exam

Fee splitting means giving or receiving payment specifically in exchange for referrals. Paying a doctor a percentage of every patient they send you fits this exactly — it monetizes the act of referring, creating a financial incentive to send patients regardless of medical need. This kind of arrangement is illegal and unethical because it can distort clinical judgment and drive overutilization. The other ideas describe different issues: providing a referral to an MRI you own is a form of self-referral or improper referral arrangement and is also restricted, but it’s not the basic definition of fee splitting. Upcoding means billing for a higher-level service than was performed, and unbundling means billing components separately when they should be bundled; both are billing fraud, not the act of paying for referrals.