Economic versus Professional Incentives for Cost Control

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Abstract
Control of the ever-increasing cost of medical care is a goal that has so far eluded all who have attempted to attain it. In this issue of the Journal Wennberg makes a new proposal1 based on his and his co-workers' demonstration that physicians' decisions overshadow all the other major factors that are thought to affect the use and thereby the cost of medical care.2 , 3 In so doing he both identifies a major professional problem as a central issue related to the high cost of medical care and makes a novel and important policy suggestion. The problem is the enormous variation . . .