How American Physicians Ensure Stratospheric Health Costs

Busy doctors, wasteful spending. "Even though physicians’ salaries account for a relatively small fraction of health care costs, physicians’ decisions may affect upward of 80 percent of total health spending. We order tests, prescribe drugs, hospitalize patients and — one of the costliest decisions a doctor can make today — call specialists for help....Health care costs must be contained, but cutting payments to doctors is a self-defeating strategy. Policy makers need to focus on the drivers of waste. And one of the most potent is when doctors reflexively call other doctors for help." Sandeep Jauhar in The New York Times.