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Previous Volume 355:1756-1759 October 26, 2006 Number 17 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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For the past century, a premise of health policy has been that patients are ill equipped to judge the merits of tests, treatments, and providers. Conventional wisdom says that physicians should fill this gap by acting as patients' agents, telling them about the risks and benefits of clinical alternatives and ignoring costs when assessing these alternatives.

But a diverse group of business leaders and public officials intends to overturn this wisdom and radically transform the physician's role. To motivate patients to take charge of their own care, they're aiming for a wholesale shift of medical costs to consumers. To empower . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

Dr. Bloche is a professor of law at Georgetown University and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, both in Washington, DC, and an adjunct professor at Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

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