A new survey shows physicians have internalized the parsimonious-care paradigm – but they’d rather save with care-coordination programs than with penalties for over-spending.
 
85% of the 2,556 doctors surveyed by researchers from Mayo Clinic’s Biomedical Ethics Program and Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery agreed with the statement, “Trying to contain costs is the responsibility of every physician.” This is consistent with previous surveys, such as one taken in 2005 in which 86.1% of hospital physicians who had undergone profiling agreed with the statement, as did 81.1% who had not been profiled.
 
But physicians in the current survey rated their own responsibility for savings lower than that of many other health care players. Only 36% thought “individual practicing physicians” had a “major” responsibility for it, behind trial lawyers (60%), health insurance companies (59%), pharmaceutical and device manufacturers (56%), hospitals and health systems (56%), patients (52%), and government (44%).
 
And they didn’t like cost-cutting to come out of their own hides. While respondents showed a “high degree of enthusiasm” for some health care programs meant to save money while improving care, they didn’t show as much approval for those programs if they stood to lose money by them.
 
For example, they really liked programs promoting continuity of care (98% somewhat or very enthusiastic) and chronic disease care coordination (98%). But they didn’t much like penalties for hospital readmissions (41%) or bundled payments (34%).
 
Also, the more their income depended on fee-for-service, the less strongly they felt about cutting costs.
 
“Salaried physicians and those in larger institutional practice settings reported a significantly higher degree of cost-consciousness compared to physicians whose compensation is based on billing and those in small or solo practices,” said lead author Dr. Jon Tilburt.
 
Keep up with the latest on how to get in on the kind of cost-cutting programs doctors like, and how to avoid the kind they don’t like, at Part B News.