Defensive medicine practice and effect on healthcare expenditures and tort reform

Abstract

The recent economic climate has brought about new healthcare reform ideas due to the increase in the price of healthcare. The associated cost of these new reform ideas is in much debate. An important area in healthcare to investigate is one of healthcare reform pertaining to defensive medicine practices and their cost implications on our current healthcare system. It is important to know the meaning of defensive medicine in order to judge if it is a problem, if it has significance in the medical field, and if there are any solutions to this issue. Defensive medicine is defined by1 as the practice of ordering medical tests, procedures, or consultations of doubtful clinical value in order to protect the prescribing physician from malpractice suits. Defensive medicine can also be defined by a deviation from sound medical practice that is induced primarily by a threat of liability Studdert et al.2