Most Bang for Medical Buck

Guest: Anupam Jena, Ruth L. Newhouse Associate Professor of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Physician in the Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital With furniture and shoes, the old adage, “you get what you pay for” applies: A higher price tag typically means higher quality.  This is not the case in medicine, though. Patients that had more expensive hospital stays, because their doctors ordered more procedures and tests, did not have better outcomes. Plainly put, they were not less likely to die or be readmitting to the hospital than patients with doctors who ordered fewer tests and procedures.