Prominent economist Uwe Reinhardt explains why health care costs are rising. Here’s how he defines defensive medicine, which is among his four identified major cost drivers:
. . . higher treatment costs triggered by our uniquely American tort laws, which in the context of medicine can lead to “defensive medicine” — that is, the application of tests and procedures mainly as a defense against possible malpractice litigation, rather than as a clinical imperative.
I completely agree. Defensive medicine accounts to $210 billion annually in wasted health dollars, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis released earlier this year.
