A Politico article noted: “Despite health care industry concerns about wasteful and unnecessary care, it’s nearly impossible for patients to overrule their doctors when they think they’re getting a procedure they don’t need, a prominent patient care advocate argued Tuesday.”
“‘I’ve had four unnecessary EKGs,’ Daniel Wolfson, executive vice president of the ABIM Foundation, said at a POLITICO Pro Health Care breakfast briefing at the Newseum. ‘I think it’s an uphill battle for the patient to talk a physician out of a procedure.'”
“Overtreatment and preventable medical errors are huge drivers of health care costs and lead to thousands of unnecessary deaths every year, but action to reverse both continues to lag, noted Leah Binder, CEO of The Leapfrog Group, a health safety advocate that represents employers.”
“‘We are not seeing progress the way we should,’ she said. ‘Given that we have a problem where safety is one of the leading causes of death in this country, we would expect to see some massive change.'”
“The drive toward more transparent costs is critical to helping people make often complicated choices about their health coverage, from choosing a high-deductible insurance plan to figuring out which plan delivers the best value at the lowest cost…”
Click here to read the full Politico article “Waste, errors in health care remain huge issues, experts agree” by Kyle Cheney.
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Doctor, Did You Wash Your Hands? ™ provides information to consumers on understanding, managing and navigating health care options.
Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H., is Clinical Professor, Preventive Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and Adjunct Professor, Baruch College ( C.U.N.Y.), Rutgers School of Public Health, and Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration.
This blog shares general information about understanding and navigating the health care system. For specific medical advice about your own problems, issues and options talk to your personal physician.