Marketplace Coverage of Our Recent Study
One of my favorite radio shows, Marketplace, did a story on our recent study, in which we showed that physicians sometimes miss out on opportunities to help patients lower their out-of-pocket expenses. The piece features a medical student who’s been working with me on this project, Wynn Hunter, who is making his first national public radio appearance!
More and more of us are paying bigger chunks of our health care costs. So what role should our doctor play as we navigate this new economic reality?
According to a new report in Health Affairs, doctors are rolling up their white sleeves and getting into the nitty-gritty more than they used to.
The question, of course, is whether those conversations are effective.
To answer that, a research team at Duke analyzed 3,000 transcripts of patient-doctor visits. The authors found that somewhere between 25 to 40 percent of the time, money comes up during appointments.
To those who believe in more transparency, the thinking is that this will arm patients with the information they need to make an informed choice.
“We have specialized knowledge. And we need to be able to help our patients navigate this,” said Dr. Chris Moriates from the University of California, San Francisco.
But some argue money issues can confuse patients, prompting them to make decisions based on their pocketbook, not their health.
Money can make physician-patient encounters tricky.“The physician should only be looking out for the health interest of the patient and that’s what the sanctity of the exam room is about,” said Harvard economist David Cutler.
That said, Cutler believes expecting more from clinicians could improve health.
To read/listen to the rest of this story, please visit Marketplace.