On Oct 29, 2008, at 11:11 AM, John Williams wrote: >> And it would be a vast improvement over anonymous bean >> counters arbitrarily denying care because it might actually cost >> money. > > A vast increase in costs, definitely. In quality? Probably not. A > large > amount of health spending in the US is for expensive diagnostics > that have a low likelihood of finding anything useful. But they get > ordered anyway because those responsible are afraid of not doing so.
Given the litigious nature of our society these days, I doubt much can be done about defensive diagnostics without cutting into legitimate medical care and treatment more than is already being done. But I would still trust practicing (or at least experienced) MD's to make those judgment calls more than I would accountants with no medical knowledge or training and little or no accountability for their decisions, which is what we have now. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
