Study finds doctors prescribe pricey drugs

[BaliBabyDoc]

CNN (excerpts)

Doctors often prescribe newer, more expensive drugs for high blood pressure instead of the ones recommended under medical guidelines, and the practice is costing the nation more than $1 billion a year, researchers say.

The researchers did not examine why, exactly, doctors go with the costlier drugs, but they speculated that aggressive drug-company advertising may be one reason.
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Pham, who was not involved in the study, said she believes similar savings could be found throughout the health care system without compromising patient care.

"It's only one of many circumstances in which better quality doesn't cost more and can actually cost less," she said.

Clearly this woman has no idea how much lobbyists, campaign donations, and network commercials cost. Big Pharma has to recoup their costs somehow . . . and it ain't gonna happen selling BS like diuretics, aspirin, and exercise b/c you cannot patent that poo.

 

[UltraQuiet]

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc
CNN (excerpts)

Doctors often prescribe newer, more expensive drugs for high blood pressure instead of the ones recommended under medical guidelines, and the practice is costing the nation more than $1 billion a year, researchers say.

The researchers did not examine why, exactly, doctors go with the costlier drugs, but they speculated that aggressive drug-company advertising may be one reason.
----
Pham, who was not involved in the study, said she believes similar savings could be found throughout the health care system without compromising patient care.

"It's only one of many circumstances in which better quality doesn't cost more and can actually cost less," she said.

Clearly this woman has no idea how much lobbyists, campaign donations, and network commercials cost. Big Pharma has to recoup their costs somehow . . . and it ain't gonna happen selling BS like diuretics, aspirin, and exercise b/c you cannot patent that poo.

What you say is true of course but I hope you aren't implying that Doctors aren't somewhat culpable.


BTW we're gonna be neighbors. I'm moving to Charlotte in a couple of weeks.

 

[rahvin]

Aren't you the guy that claims $70000 a year in malpractice insurance doesn't affect health care costs?

 

[Fausto]

Gosh, I wonder if this has anything to do with drug reps constantly wining and dining the docs? :Q

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

What you say is true of course but I hope you aren't implying that Doctors aren't somewhat culpable.
BTW we're gonna be neighbors. I'm moving to Charlotte in a couple of weeks.

Of course, MDs are somewhat culpable. Hence, I chose not to apply a DOD/Bush White House edit of the original article. Welcome to the Queen City! I spend a lot of time in Charlotte with my Vietnamese and Indian brothers. We should get together.

Aren't you the guy that claims $70000 a year in malpractice insurance doesn't affect health care costs?

Let me see if I can explain this so even Bushies can understand . . . There's a neurosurgeon in the Charlotte area . . . who will remain nameless. He was pulling down 300k a year in the late 90s and likely paying 40k or so in MedMal. This guy decided that a relatively common cause of intractable headaches was intracranial pressure. So he decided to do his own research to demonstrate that partial removal of the occiput was a viable treatment for these headaches. He typically wrote up intriguing medical gobbledygoop that managed to get pass multiple medical review officers because several insurance companies paid for the procedures. Of course he no longer practices in NC and has been named in multiple MedMal cases b/c most of his patients have significant morbidity caused by his intervention.

Now other Charlotte area neurosurgeons have roundly criticized this guy. Not only because he's a danger to his patients but also the fact that his malpractice dramatically increases the costs of medical care (cost of unnecessary procedures and medical morbidity secondary to his unnecessary procedures) and the cost of MedMal insurance.

To the extent that MedMal drives unnecessary healthcare utilization (CT for headaches or cardiac catherization for chest pain) then yes . . . malpractice costs affect healthcare costs. But in general hospitals, clinics, and doctors do not have pricing power comparable to the pricing power of insurance providers (healthcare or MedMal). So the general inflation in healthcare costs comes from more people having access to expensive care NOT MedMal rates. Simply put MDs are more likely to be priced out of the market instead of raising their fees to cover increased MedMal rates.