How Patients are taken for a ‘test ride’ RAMESH S ARUNACHALAM Billions of dollars are spent worldwide on health care through repetitive and cost enhancing tests. They only fatten the chain of doctors, labs and pharma companies. Some real life examples A lot of money (billions of dollars worldwide annually) is spent on health care by countries, its citizens, governments and other stakeholders.
In addition, some of it is merely repetitive and cost enhancing, without much (serious) addition in value. During October-November 2011, a friend of mine came under a lot of stress and had to visit several doctors as part of this – from his corner family doctor to a local specialist as well as a top-notch diabetologist through a system of medical referrals. And each of them got him to repeat the same tests, over and over again within a space of hardly a few days, despite the fact that the tests…
