[Martha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maddy the Turbo Beagle I would respectfully disagree that an educated patient cant help control costs.... My experience with some doctors is that they dont effectively investigate and listen to patients and would rather just run tests....the old "I dont know....let's throw a bunch of stuff and see what sticks"...The HMO concept has made this worse in my opinion....even seeing a specialist doesnt always work either....because some specialists even have a special focus... So I think the discussion should be in having an educated patient who helps direct the care and save costs....

Fair enough. But how do you do this? I don't know how you can tie decision making to cost. If you potentially have cancer, you want the biopsy and best treatment. You don't want to be priced out of appropriate treatment orr too worried about your big deductible so you wait and see what happens. But if you are having some trouble with your tennis elbw, maybe doing nothing is best. What about carpel tunnel? My DH has carpel tunnel and won't do anything about it. It bugs him a fair amount. That is fine, it is his decision. If he was a secretary, he would need to do something about it or lose his job. These decisions should be based on outcome evidence, risk and need.

I like the emphasis on evidence based medicine that was mentioned a few months ago on another thread and that Rich advocates.