In today’s health care climate, physicians are increasingly being asked to do their part to help contain costs and to “choose wisely” when it comes to ordering costly medical tests and services. However, a recent study led by researchers from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice found that while the overwhelming majority of physicians surveyed (92.2%) felt that doctors had a responsibility to control costs, less than half of the physician-respondents (36.9%) reported having a firm understanding of the costs of tests and procedures to the health care system.
The study, published in the American Journal of Managed Care, was designed to test physicians’ awareness and knowledge of Choosing Wisely, an initiative of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation. The Choosing Wisely campaign was created in 2012 to help physicians better identify low-value health care services, or those that give patients little real benefit for the time and money spent.
