Physicians need to broach discussions about out-of-pocket costs with patients the same way they discuss a treatment’s side effects, public policy professors wrote.
“Admittedly, out-of-pocket costs are difficult to predict, but so are many medical outcomes that are nevertheless included in clinical discussions,” Peter Ubel, MD, of Duke University’s School of Public Policy, and colleagues wrote.
They noted in a New England Journal of Medicine perspective published Wednesday that patients can experience considerable financial strain from out-of-pocket costs, with little or no discussion beforehand about potentially avoidable health-related bills… (Read more here)
