Outcomes Research, Cost Containment, and the Fear of Health Care Rationing

Outcomes research studies the treatment options for common diseases conditions and attempts to identify what works in medicine and to develop guidelines. The U. S. Congress recently established the Agency for Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) to promote outcomes research in an many hope will produce a more efficient health care economy. Wennberg on the experience of the assessment team funded by the AHCPR to study prostatic hypertrophy, and its conclusion about patient preferences and in treatment decisions. He anticipates that outcomes research help control health care costs without rationing by reducing the number of demanded by patients and by freeing funds for reallocation within care. Wennberg cautions, however, that outcomes research alone cannot the problems of a medical market characterized by an increasing supply technologies, treatment theories, and physicians. (KIE abstract)