As the availability and costs of medical technologies has grown,so has the indiscriminate spend of expensive tests that are not needed Soaring medical expenditures in the United States are one of the most urgent problems of the American healthcare system and the American economy. Although innumerable commentators hold made proposals for reducing expenditures and improving the quality of healthcare, very few hold suggested tackling one of the sources of mounting costs: profligate doctors. Doctors hold a common tendency to obtain multiple imaging studies of the same organ when one would suffice, or to obtain blood tests of hospitalized patients far more often than essential,to overuse antibiotics and screening tests or to provide many unnecessary CT scans and back surgeries. The great majority of medical expenditures are under the control of physicians; no one forces doctors to order or do anything. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com