Journal article
High Physician Concern About Malpractice Risk Predicts More Aggressive Diagnostic Testing In Office-Based Practice
Health Affairs, Vol.32(8), pp.1383-1391
08/2013
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0233
PMID: 23918482
Abstract
Despite widespread agreement that physicians who practice defensive medicine drive up health care costs, the extent to which defensive medicine increases costs is unclear. The differences in findings to date stem in part from the use of two distinct approaches for assessing physicians' perceived malpractice risk. In this study we used an alternative strategy: We linked physicians' responses regarding their levels of malpractice concern as reported in the 2008 Health Tracking Physician Survey to Medicare Parts A and B claims for the patients they treated during the study period, 2007-09. We found that physicians who reported a high level of malpractice concern were most likely to engage in practices that would be considered defensive when diagnosing patients who visited their offices with new complaints of chest pain, headache, or lower back pain. No consistent relationship was seen, however, when state-level indicators of malpractice risk replaced self-rated concern. Reducing defensive medicine may require approaches focused on physicians' perceptions of legal risk and the underlying factors driving those perceptions.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- High Physician Concern About Malpractice Risk Predicts More Aggressive Diagnostic Testing In Office-Based Practice
- Creators
- Emily R Carrier - Emily R. Carrier is a senior health researcher at the Center for Studying Health System Change, in Washington, D.CJames D Reschovsky - James D. Reschovsky is a senior health researcher at the Center for Studying Health System ChangeDavid A Katz - David A. Katz is an associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, and a core investigator in the Comprehensive Access and Delivery Research and Evaluation Center, Veterans Affairs Iowa City Health Care SystemMichelle M Mello - Michelle M. Mello is the C. Boyden Gray Associate Professor of Health Policy and Law in the Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston, Massachusetts
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Health Affairs, Vol.32(8), pp.1383-1391
- DOI
- 10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0233
- PMID
- 23918482
- NLM abbreviation
- Health Aff (Millwood)
- ISSN
- 0278-2715
- eISSN
- 2694-233X
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/2013
- Academic Unit
- Epidemiology; General Internal Medicine; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984094214202771
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