Brian’s Note: Today it is my pleasure to add Tom Emerick’s posts to Care & Cost. When I first met him about a decade ago, Tom was VP of Benefits for Walmart and focused on the appropriateness of care and cost. As you’ll see, his posts are brief, pithy and to the point.
Tom Emerick
Posted 11/4/11 on Cracking Health Costs
Once in a while you read a book about what’s wrong with health care in America that you both can’t stop reading but have to take a breather every few pages. The Treatment Trap by Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh is one of those books.
This book is different in an important way than most. It does not overwhelm you with studies, statistics, and charts. It tells stories.
The strength of The Treatment Trap the personal and compelling narrative about people who have been harmed and killed by doctors who performed utterly unnecessary surgical operations or wildy risky ones without properly informing either the patient or the patient’s family. I kept asking myself how these surgeons sleep at night.
I urge you to get this book and read it, but I’ll warn you about one thing. You will finish with a healthy skepticism of surgical interventions. I’ll offer you a challenge. Read the book and tell me I’m wrong.
Care And Cost 