Business
Analysis - Current Event
Defensive
Medicine: A Culprit in Spiking Healthcare Costs
Author:
Jeffrey
Segal
Healthcare
costs are increasing in the healthcare industry today due to the fact that many
physicians are ordering a number of unnecessary tests and procedures for their
patients. Defensive medicine occurs when
physicians order unnecessary tests and procedures to reduce them from being
exposed to a malpractice lawsuit; this is considered to be a positive defensive
medicine. When the physician refuses to treat a patient or perform a certain
procedure, this is considered to be a negative defensive medicine.
According to author, Paul A. Manner
M.D., “calls for tort reform hold that the practice of defensive medicine is a
major factor increasing the cost of medical care. Although the concept of
defensive medicine seems obvious, a true estimate of its cost and impact is
surprisingly hard to find.”
It
is believed that in order for the physician’s behavior to change, the medical
tort system must take the lead in changing the awareness about defensive
medicine. Many physicians feel they have
no other choice but to order these particular tests to keep them out of
lawsuits for unnecessary reasons. There have been many cases where physicians
have ordered tests, “in most cases, physicians order up tests not because they
were necessary to diagnose what was wrong, but because if they didn’t and
something went very wrong, they believe they would not be protected in a
lawsuit” (Par. 4).
A
nonprofit organization, Patients for Fair Compensation estimated a cost
of about $650 billion a year from tests that were not necessarily needed. This
$650 billion a year includes money coming out of the taxpayers’ pockets. Medicare is known to pay $125 million a year
and Medicaid pays up to $96 for unneeded tests and procedures. There is a list
of certain test and procedures such as CT scans for fainting episodes, stress
tests, and chest x-rays for routine outpatient surgeries to name a few that
patients can do without. The physicians feel
obligated to order these tests and procedures because patients request them so
often. These patients are people who want their diagnosis quickly and if the
test is the way then that is what they push the physicians to do. In other
words, it's a never-ending cycle that will not end anytime soon as long as
physicians feel like potential targets in a lawsuit. The only solution would be
to revamp our nation's medical tort system. "States such as Florida and Georgia
are considering a move to an administrative, non- adversarial model, proposed
by Patients for Fair Compensation, called the Patient Compensation System"
(Para 10). Patients in these states can
take their complaints and claims to a panel board that is similar to workers'
compensation and their cases would be heard in months rather than years. This
system would keep physicians from being dragged in and out of the courts for
lawsuits because they would not be held accountable for any tort claims. I believe
this is the start to raise awareness about defensive medicine but also know
that the legal system must change first to jump-start this ordeal.
Sources:http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA294194095&v=2.1&u=txshracd2589&it=r&p=HRCA&sw=w
Segal, Jeffrey. “Defensive Medicine:
A Culprit in Spiking Healthcare Costs.” Medical
Economics 25 May 2012: 70 + Health Reference Center Academic. Web 11 July
2012.
http://www.aaos.org/news/bulletin/janfeb07/clincial 2.asp
I would have to disagree in my opinion I do not believe that our health care costs are rising due to physician ordering unnecessary tests. I do believe that sometimes it takes more than just one test to find what could be wrong with a person. My point of view on medical is that I would hate to be the person sick and just have a physician say this is what is wrong but I dont want to run too many tests just incase I am right and then it looks like I did unnecessary testing.
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