24 June 2009
Health Care Cost Control
Dr. Mark Sklar calls for a reasonable program of health reform in his OpEd article in the June 23, 2009, Wall Street Journal, “A Doctor’s Reflections on Health Care Reform.” Achieving its three main elements—public incentives for preventing chronic disease, increased doctor reimbursement for office visits, and medical malpractice tort reform—requires the leadership of doctors.
It is a little disingenuous for Dr. Sklar to complain about insurance coding as “harassment of dedicated physicians.” Unfortunately, we have developed a medical diagnostic system that replicates the “House” model: consider every illness as potentially unusual and subject the patient to an unlimited battery of tests until every diagnosis is exhausted before selecting the correct one.
That methodology costs plenty. It seems that cost effectiveness is a missing part of our nation’s medical training.
Dr. Mark Sklar calls for a reasonable program of health reform in his OpEd article in the June 23, 2009, Wall Street Journal, “A Doctor’s Reflections on Health Care Reform.” Achieving its three main elements—public incentives for preventing chronic disease, increased doctor reimbursement for office visits, and medical malpractice tort reform—requires the leadership of doctors.
It is a little disingenuous for Dr. Sklar to complain about insurance coding as “harassment of dedicated physicians.” Unfortunately, we have developed a medical diagnostic system that replicates the “House” model: consider every illness as potentially unusual and subject the patient to an unlimited battery of tests until every diagnosis is exhausted before selecting the correct one.
That methodology costs plenty. It seems that cost effectiveness is a missing part of our nation’s medical training.
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