IM Residents Concerned about Cost, But Don't Have Access to Cost of Care Numbers Save

A large ACP survey of over 18,000 US internal medicine residents shows they often incorporate cost of care in discussions and decisions, but may not know the data (citation source http://buff.ly/1KeLq0D). Most (88.2%) agreed that they "incorporate patients' values and concerns into clinical decisions." Nearly half incorporate the cost of tests and treatments into clinical decisions and most agreed that overuse was driven by defensive medicine (84.6%), followed by diagnostic uncertainty (60.9%), patient demands (54.8%), and concerns about inadequate patient follow-up (47.1%). But only one-quarter had access to or knew the estimated costs of tests and treatments.