Doctors in Pennsylvania and across the country are placing part of the blame for high health care costs on two unlikely suspects, themselves and the fear of medical malpractice lawsuits. According to a recent story in the Los Angeles Times, the journal the Archives of Internal Medicine reports that many primary care doctors say they give their patients too much care — scheduling too many tests and writing prescriptions for too many drugs — something that has caused health care costs across the country to rise.

The report indicates that 42 percent of doctors across the country said that patients were receiving too much medical care. A total of 28 percent said that they themselves were ordering too many tests and setting up too many referrals to medical specialists.

The Times story said that doctors pointed to three reasons why they do this. First, they are more aggressive when ordering treatments because they want to protect themselves from medical malpractice lawsuits. Others pointed to misleading measurements of whether doctors are doing their jobs properly, while still others said that they are not provided enough time to meet with patients to learn what is wrong with them. To fill in this gap, doctors order more consultations and tests.

Rising health care costs are certainly a serious problem in this country. Now that so many doctors have identified many of the reasons why these costs are rising, maybe they'll take additional steps to help put a brake on the soaring fees associated with medical care.

Source: Los Angeles Times, "Some doctors blame themselves for rising healthcare costs," Karen Kaplan, Sept. 27, 2011