The emergence of "boutique medicine"

doi:10.1136/bmjusa.02080004

BMJ, doi: 10.1136/bmjusa.02080004, (Published 9 October 2002)

Education and debate

The emergence of "boutique medicine"

Uwe E Reinhardt, professor of economics and public affairs.

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

reinhard@princeton.edu
The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

From BMJ USA 2002;August:468

The January 26, 2002 issue of the BMJ featured a news report by a Florida doctor, Fred Charatan, raising concerns about theemergence in the US of "boutique medicine," ie, practices thatoffer premium service for patients willing to pay large fees (http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7331/187/a).This generated a letter to the editor of the BMJ by Uwe Reinhardt,a professor of economics at Princeton University, which in turnset off an exchange of Rapid Responses (see http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7331/187/a).Among the entries in that exchange was the following (abridged) $---$ EDITOR

Physicians pursue a variety of objectives, among which income quite legitimately ranks high. In the economist's book, thereis nothing wrong with the pursuit of income. Furthermore, economistsbelieve that persons who have accumulated the human capital thatphysicians have ought to earn commensurately highincomes.

The problem is that an informal etiquette among physicians precludes them from ever . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Religious Remnants: Ned Hoke OMD
bmj.com, 14 Oct 2002 [Full text]
Let quality control cost: John P Heptonstall
bmj.com, 15 Oct 2002 [Full text]