If a physician worries that a treatment will benefit the patient through the placebo effect, should he perform it?

Those charged by the ACA health reform act to identify best clinical practices that are evidence-based and applicable across diverse populations can learn much from the experience of the Medicare-funded End Stage Renal Disease Program.

The AMA Code of Medical Ethics’ opinions on cost containment, payment structures, and financial incentives.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld key provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The individual mandates and the optional Medicaid expansion will begin on January 1, 2014.

Believing that unnecessary use of resources is a significant contributor to rising health care costs, the ABIM Foundation launched the Choosing Wisely campaign, in which physicians and patients work together to develop treatment plans that are effective for the patient but are also efficient and promote the sustainable use of limited resources.

By not adequately staffing a unit, a hospital administration is withholding optimal care from those treated there.

Needed waste reduction aside, are there areas of medical care in which rationing of resources is ethically defensible?

While next-generation genome-sequencing technology has great potential to aid cancer research, ethical challenges concerning privacy and confidentiality and the ownership of inventions remain.

Why is there such an apparent mismatch between what our spending priorities ought to be and the actual allocation of funds? Differences in wealth, which often translate into greater political power, offer a partial explanation.

Even when external factors such as nonaccidental injury weigh heavily on clinicians' perceptions, they should not lose focus on the patient's best interest when deciding whether to continue or withdraw treatment.