Defensive medicine costs more than money

Ted Frank: “Malpractice litigation does change doctors’ incentives, but only with respect to short-term results. Because doctors won’t be sued for long-term consequences of defensive medicine, there is a substantial risk of overexposure to radiation in the course of defensive CT scans — a problem identified in a study in the latest issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine, finding that standard trauma treatment — 1005 chest X-ray equivalents — results in an additional 322 cases of cancer per 100,000 treated because of use of CT scans.”