> How does dental (or medical) care differ when the person recommending the procedure directly benefits financially from it?
Most of the big DI (diagnostic imaging) providers (GE, Siemens, Philips, etc.) have financing programs for physicians who want to buy CT, MRI, etc.
They have consultants who'll help you with your Certificates of Need (the documentation that you need when opening a new healthcare facility that is, cynically, "will your competitors choose to shut down or accept less revenue if we let you open"). They'll even connect you with other physicians so you can form your own partnership on a facility.
And then, you'll go on to refer your regular patients for DI at a rate somewhere between 1 and 2 standard deviations above what other providers do for the same ICD-10 codes.
Not problematic at all!