A recent article titled, “Defensive medicine adds billions to annual U.S. healthcare costs,” talked about how hospital physicians estimate the cost of defensive medicine to be between 26% and 34% of total annual healthcare costs, according to a new report by Jackson Healthcare.

The article, featured in a recent online edition of “Healthcare Finance News,” included facts from the healthcare solutions company.

Jackson Healthcare’s study reported the opinions of primary care physicians as well as outsourced physicians (placed in top U.S. hospitals), regarding defensive medicine collected between October 2009 and May 2011.

The study concluded that fear of being sued drives patient care providers to order tests and treatments as added insurance, which in turn, inflates healthcare spending.

“Through our ongoing research, it’s become apparent that U.S. physicians are the only physicians in the world personally financially liable for their medical decisions,” said Richard L. Jackson, Jackson Healthcare’s CEO. “Physicians throughout the world enjoy protections and a patient compensation system that free them to focus on what’s best for their patients. U.S. physicians’ medical decisions are influenced by an ever-present threat of litigation.

“Unfortunately, there is little agreement on how much defensive medicine is actually costing us,” said Jackson.

“However, the reality is that it is generating significant costs and waste with ripple effects beyond the economic impact,” he added. “For example, patients are being under-and-over-treated with medically unnecessary tests and procedures. Plus, the physician/patient relationship has been breached as physicians are forced to protect themselves against any third party attacks against their treatment decisions.”