Before the late 20th century, overweight and obesity were not considered population-wide health risks, but the advent of weight loss drugs in the 1990s accelerated hypermedicalization via BMI use. 

Abigail E. Lowe joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Shawn G. Gibbs: “How Should Health Care Organizations Protect Personnel in Environmental Services and Related Fields?”

Lloyd Duplechan joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article, coauthored with Dr David Sine: “Roles of Environmental Services Workers’ Wages and Status in Patient Safety.”

Practice ownership shifts to various employment models have amplified the problem of physician-employees of some US health care companies not knowing about services billed in their names.

Online tools intended to make health care purchasing resemble “consumerism” have had little effect on improving transparency for patients.

Negative health consequences from costly care are referred to as financial toxicity and should be included in informed consent discussions.

More transparent pricing would allow patients and families to make better decisions, but there are limitations to how reliably it promotes efficiency and market discipline.

Fragmentation in US health care delivery streams and shortcomings in formal quality measures mean that transparency could be more useful to policymakers and regulators than patients.

This article analyzes differences in prescription drug pricing transparency practices among 3 Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development member nations.

This article applies principlism to what a “shoppable service” model would demand of clinicians in practice.