Historically, medical students and residents have not been given much information about treatment and test costs as part of their education, but that is changing, according to the report. Since 2007, U.S. residency programs have been required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education to incorporate risk-benefit analysis and cost awareness into their teaching programs.
According to a survey by the American Association of Medical Colleges cited in the Times report, 60 percent of 102 American and Canadian medical schools include some teaching of healthcare costs, but the amount of time spent on it varies greatly. Part of the problem is that faculty members who are academic physicians or researchers themselves often do not know much about healthcare economics and do not feel comfortable teaching the subject.
Read The New York Times‘ report on physician awareness of costs.
