Study: Doctors Look To Others To Play Biggest Role In Curbing Health Costs

When it comes to controlling the country’s health care costs, doctors point their fingers at lawyers, insurance companies, drug makers and hospitals. But well over half acknowledge they have at least some responsibility as stewards of health care resources.

In a study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Mayo Clinic researchers surveyed more than 2,500 doctors to assess their views of different approaches to rein in the nation’s health care costs. The doctors were randomly selected from an American Medical Association database.

Based on the findings, 59 percent of doctors believe they have some responsibility in holding down health care costs. Only 36 percent think they have a major role. More than half of doctors, however, said each of five other groups carry “major responsibility:” trial lawyers, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and patients.

When asked about options to reduce health care costs, most doctors viewed efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of care most favorably. For example, 98 percent are enthusiastic about efforts to promote care coordination for people with chronic diseases. Doctors were also mostly in favor of improving conditions for evidence-based decisions, including efforts to prevent corporate influence of physicians’ decisions and promoting head-to-head trials of competing treatments. They were less enthusiastic about changing current payment models. Only 7 percent, for example, were very enthusiastic about eliminating the traditional fee-for-service payment system, while another 23 percent were somewhat enthusiastic. About a third of the physicians expressed enthusiasm for bundled payment systems.