And it reins in junk lawsuits that lead to defensive medicine and higher premiums.
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This will reduce the practice of defensive medicine and save billions of dollars in wasted health care spending.
Fear of a malpractice suit for missing a diagnosis is a major driver behind "defensive medicine, " the researchers note.
One underexamined aspect of defensive medicine is those excessive referrals to diminish responsibility.
You can thank defensive medicine, frivolous lawsuits, very expensive futile care, and overuse of medical services for much of the total.
Age, obesity and defensive medicine are the trillion-dollar elephants in the room.
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Most costly is the individual doctor's perceived threat of a career-ending malpractice award and his or her incentive, therefore, to practice defensive medicine.
Tort reform must occur. it is estimated that docs spend between 250 billion and 650 billion on defensive medicine each year to avoid litigation.
Physician and insurer groups like to collapse all conversations about cost growth in health care to malpractice reform, while their opponents trivialize the role of defensive medicine.
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Now, I don't believe malpractice reform is a silver bullet, but I've talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs.
We can end the era of defensive medicine with real malpractice reforms, and use the savings to fund state programs that provide insurance for Americans with pre-existing conditions.
You have too much defensive medicine, too many malpractice suits.
Fear of malpractice suits leads doctors to practice defensive medicine.
According to the American Medical association (AMA), nearly 200 billion dollars is spent on defensive medicine annually, a direct consequence of the current structure of the malpractice litigation system.
Defensive medicine includes all the extra tests and procedures performed to deter lawsuits and is separate and apart from spending on malpractice premiums, which add another 1 percent to health spending.
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According to results of this new study, the wide-ranging effects of lengthy malpractice claims until resolution likely contributes to the costly practice of defensive medicine, impacting not only the economy, but patients as well.
It is not enough to stop the practice of defensive medicine, but when doctors are asked by their colleagues to justify the tests they ordered and the procedures they performed, perhaps they will be reminded that more is not always better.
But that experience and prior ones leave me skeptical of the defensive way medicine is practiced.
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