English

Alternative forms

• fee-splitting

Noun

fee splitting ‎(usually uncountable, plural fee splittings)

1. (business) The practice, usually of questionable ethicality, by some professionals, such as medical doctors and lawyers, of sending a client to a second practitioner for an additional consultation in order to obtain another payment from the client or from his or her insurer, and in return for which the original practitioner receives a portion of the payment made to the second practitioner (a "commission" or "piece of the action").
   • 1986 July 6, Dr. Carl Weber, “Westchester Opinion: Challenge to Doctor's Ethics Emerges”, in New York Times:

     While it is impossible to remove all financial pressures from the decision-making process, there are some practices, such as fee splitting, that are unethical because they so strongly influence practice patterns solely on the basis of financial considerations.

   • 1997, Lauch Faircloth, Connie Mack, editors, Problems Surrounding the Mortgage Origination Process: Congressional Hearing, ISBN 9780788186899, page 208:

     Some commenters believed that implementation of the employer-employee exemption would allow abusive practices to occur such as kickbacks, tie-ins, fee splittings, and conflicts of interest.

   • 2008 March 25, Manjeet Kripalani, “Indian Pharma: Hooked on the Hard Sell”, in Businessweek:

     The report complained of "a clear nexus between private medical practitioners and pharmacy shops," and "fee-splitting between diagnostic centres and referring doctors."

See also

• kickback