WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- The Wake Forest University School of Medicine says it will investigate the implications involved in requiring patients to pay more of their medical costs.
The study will examine how the added responsibility affects care that patients receive and what the implications are for health care law and medical ethics.
Mark Hall, a professor of law and public health, said patients are becoming the primary decision-makers concerning their own medical care financing.
"This change fundamentally alters the doctor-patient relationship," said Hall. "These developments require patients and doctors to confront the costs of different treatment options much more explicitly than when insurance covered virtually everything."
He explained physicians and their patients used to assume insurance would pay, so their conversations focused on medical risks and the benefits of treatment options and not on what they cost. That is changing, said Hall.
Hall and Carl Schneider of the University of Michigan School of Law will study the impact of the shift in financial responsibility on health care law and medical ethics.
The 30-month project will include face-to-face interviews with both patients and physicians in North Carolina and Michigan.
