The high cost of defensive medicine

[Geee]

Washingrton Times:

As the 2016 race for the White House heats up, there will be a lot of discussion about the state of health care in our country and what needs to be done to make it more affordable.

 

While we often hear the Affordable Care Act is not working and most Americans don’t support it, what we haven’t heard are concrete solutions that will make health insurance premiums, co-pays and out-of-pocket charges less costly for all of us.

 

The answer to cost containment in health care is to create a solution that reduces the costly practice of defensive medicine.

 

Doctors practice defensive medicine every day when they order more tests, procedures and medications than are medically necessary. There is only one reason physicians practice defensive medicine: to avoid meritless lawsuits.

 

In 2010, Gallup surveyed doctors nationwide and found up to one in four health care dollars could be attributed to defensive medicine. A survey released earlier this year by the Official Journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons found that more than 75 percent of neurosurgeons said they practice defensive medicine to protect themselves from lawsuits.