Mac Cool wrote:
Jay Hanig:

I asked him if he seriously thought that another CT scan would show
what so many others hadn't and he said: "Of course not... but if I
*don't* order one and something happens, a lawyer will have my guts
for garters because I didn't order one."

So an expensive test is ordered essentially to head off an attorney
and for no other reason. Your health dollars at work.

And you believed that?

Not only believed, but empirically provable.

My state capped tort claims five years ago. Since then we've seen a
significant increase in physicans practicing here and malpractice insurance
rates have fallen five years in a row. There are 254 counties in my state.
Several years ago, there were many that did not have a practicing OB/GYN.
Now, all of them do.

Oh, doctors still practice defensive medicine, but it's tempered by common
sense. If you present with head lice, the doctor does not now (usually)
order a blood test for Chastic Fibrosis (a disease normally found in foxes).