Physicians are primarily concerned with providing the best laboratory tests and patient care possible, and cost is not a huge consideration. A study published in Internal Medicine in April of 2013 showed that if hospitals would post the cost of tests on lab requisitions that MDs would pay more attention to ordering fewer and less expensive tests. In fact, the cost of lab tests decreased by 9% at Johns Hopkins Medical Center when these costs were posted.
As a result MDs have lost control of patient care, which is now too often in the hands of insurance companies and large physician conglomerates.
