Saving money in health care – ACP’s HVCCC

High Value Cost Conscious Care does not just represent a slogan.  HVCCC represents an attitude.  We at ACP believe that physicians can help decrease health care costs.  We see waste in the system and will do our best to decrease the waste.

Yesterday I tweeted - Appropriate Use of Screening and Diagnostic Tests to Foster High-Value, Cost-Conscious Care bit.ly/yIjyP4 via @addthis – must read!

Please read this article.  This represents a real attempt to provide practical guidelines (with a small g) on ways to avoid unnecessary testing.  This article is just the beginning.

We physicians have a responsibility to the nation to decrease costs when doing so has no negative impact on health care.  We must look carefully at eliminating unnecessary testing, drugs and procedures.

From this article I particularly like these quotes:

Finally, it is important to note that the true cost of a test includes not only the cost of the test itself but also the downstream costs incurred because the test was performed (5). For example, an exercise stress test in an asymptomatic patient may result in a false-positive finding that leads to cardiac catheterization, with its attendant costs and risks, but with no proven benefit. Thus, a seemingly inexpensive test can result in substantial costs because of subsequent testing, treatment, or follow-up. In assessing the costs of a diagnostic test, we must consider these downstream costs and savings.

Because of this article's importance, the Annals of Internal Medicine has made the text and the pdf free online!