Defensive Medicine
Is defensive medicine becoming a real issue in New York state and elsewhere? Doctors across the country are becoming increasingly worried about being sued and therefore are practicing what many are calling “defensive medicine”, meaning they order a myriad of tests that may not even be needed just to rule out issues so that they do not come back down the road, even if that means ordering tests that are unneeded.
Doctors say they are in a difficult position because they want to protect themselves against legal vulnerabilities, and at the same time not over-prescribe expensive medical testing such as MRIs and CAT scans, which insurers monitor for unnecessary usage.
‘Sometimes we end up being in a position where we feel like we have to do things a little more defensively than would be ideal in the best of all possible worlds,’ said
Dr. [Michael] Rosenberg, the president of the Medical Society of the State of New York. ‘Where that comes in is the test that should be ordered every 12 months but is ordered every six months, or the antibiotic [prescribed even though] maybe you’d ideally wait a day and see if it is necessary.
Is there a solution to this problem? Or as our society becomes more and more litigious, will the problem worsen?