Fear of litigation not cause of skyrocketing US health care costs, says Public Citizen

In the vast majority of circumstances, doctors act based on their clinical judgment and other factors, not based on liability concerns, according to a report released by US consumer advocacy Public Citizen. Common claims about “defensive medicine,” a term for doctors performing unnecessary tests and procedures due to the fear of litigation, are wildly overblown, it claims.

Much stronger evidence points to other causes of unnecessary tests and procedures, such as a fee-for-service system that pays providers more for every additional test and procedure, said Public Citizen. The report, “Defensive Medicine: The Doctored Crisis,” comes as both congressional Republicans and President Barack Obama have called for new policies on medical liability.

Republicans in the US House of Representatives are pushing through the legislative process a sweeping bill, the Help Efficient Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare Act of 2011, or HR 5, that would let all the players in the medical industry - doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, nursing home providers and the medical device industry - off the hook when they injure or kill people with recklessness.