Posted on 02/17/2012 11:57:29 AM PST by Innovative
A leading group of U.S. doctors is trying to tackle the costly problem of excessive medical testing, hoping to avoid more government intervention in how they practice.
The American College of Physicians (ACP), the largest U.S. medical specialty group, is rolling out guidelines to help doctors better identify when patients should screen for specific diseases and when they can be spared the cost, and potentially invasive procedures that follow.
Many individual U.S. medical centers have launched their own efforts to build a protocol of patient care in fields such as diabetes or obstetrics, but the ACP effort has the potential to influence doctors nationally. ACP members include more than 132,000 physicians, mainly focused on internal medicine.
"Excessive testing costs $200 billion to $250 billion (per year)," Dr. Steven Weinberger, CEO of ACP said in an interview from his office in Philadelphia. "There's an overuse of imaging studies, CT scans for lung disease, overuse of routine electrocardiograms and other cardiac tests such as stress testing."
(Excerpt) Read more at insurancejournal.com ...
Why don't we just withhold medical care from all sick people -- just think how much money THAT will save. (sarcasm, of course)
Another priceless quote from the article:
“Health economists and other policy advisers question whether doctors can be trusted to make the right calls.”
Yes, we should trust bureaucrats more to make the right decisions about our healthcare, than trained medical doctors! (more sarcasm — but they are actually serious about this!)
It’s all defensive medicine. This is a legal issue, not a medical issue.
“U.S. Seeks Ways to Reduce Excessive Medical Testing”
Uhhh.... Yeah...
A Medical Liability Attorney’s wet dream.
No, no rationing required. Docs do many unnecessary tests these days out of fear of being sued. Solid tort reform would take care of that problem.
Good luck with that.
So why not reform the legal system and let the doctors practice medicine?
Also — testing saves lives. If you don’t test, many deadly or at least serious diseases are not uncovered until it’s too late, not to mention, that by then the treatments are more expensive and less helpful.
The emphasis should be on testing, to discover diseases early, when they are more treatable, and less expensive to treat. The cost of testing is nothing in comparison to the cost of treatment when diseases are discovered in more advanced stages, because there was no testing early enough.
Exactly, reduce the Medical cost but increase the litigation. Bambi taking care of his Lawyer Homies.
Its called “DEATH PANELS”.If you’re 90 they’ll make you comfortable, if you’re 75 or over life saving techniques will be limited, if you’re obese, a smoker, diabetic or bad heart, liver or kidney you got big problems. Of course none of these rules will affect the bureaucrats. And sure enough they’ll be rewarded with another four years to further destroy the constitution.
Tort reform.
Howabout:
Loser Pays.
It’s not really a Death Panel, it’s just a way of ensuring that tests are allocated to those for whom they are cost effective.
I don't trust MIT economists to make those decisions, because they are flaming leftists. I've taken classes from MIT trained economists, so I know what I'm talking about.
Trying to get ahead of the juggernaut.
Of course, today sometimes there is a temptation to over-test because of a different juggernaut. I don’t think Obamacare intends to do anything about that — why should a Ratly plan steal business from shysters? Putting doctors between a rock and a hard place.
MIT produces wonderful technology. Its humanities suck, they are inhumane.
This could be solved overnight by tort reform and cracking down on self-referral.
And I am not being sarcastic.
Spinal fusion is a last resort operation. It's usually not done unless more conservative options have failed. I'd rather the surgeon make the decision about how to do the operation rather than some think tank and government bureaucrats thousands of miles away.
If you get true Tort Reform, they wouldn’t have to test as much.
What's wrong with physicians owning testing facilities? Congressman Stark who is a raving lunatic wants physicians to just be serfs who work for the government and don't own anything.
I have a large annual deductible and an HSA. I don't go to my doctor just for the hell of it. In fact my previous doctor destroyed all my medical records when I didn't see him for 7 years.
Tort reform . . .
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