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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (118063)	8/13/2009 1:52:38 PM
From: biotech_bull	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 541747

That reform is needed is beyond question, that physicians and hospitals are guilty of overutilization is beyond question. As one of the few physicians on the board I am compelled to defend the greed accusation not because it doesn't exist - only that it's not the whole story or even a big part of it as Ed pointed out. I'm in favor of bundling and getting rid of fee-for-service completely and not arguing out of self-interest, but the fact is that even if one puts all physicians on salary, overutilization isn't going away. True reform is going to take a lot more than that. I am glad Gawande has brought up the overuse of CAT scans - and this applies to other scans such as PET and MRI as well. Some stats to bear in mind: Percentage of Radiologists ordering a CAT scan 0% Percentage of physicians who get paid for ordering a CAT scan 0% Percentage of physicians who own CAT scanners 5% or I'd guess even less