Dartmouth Atlas: Overtreatment still common

As if to confirm the need for consistency in healthcare delivery advocated by the architects of PROMETHEUS Payment, Inc., researchers at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in Lebanon, NH, reported in April that chronically ill patients who receive more care might not enjoy better outcomes.

In addition, existing financial practices simply encourage overuse of treatment, according to The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care 2008: Tracking the Care of Patients with Severe Chronic Illness.

There’s no end of interesting benchmarks in The Dartmouth Atlas, which this year focuses on the care delivered to chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries during their last two years of life.