overtreat

Therefore, when Japanese doctors overtreat, they do so in inexpensive ways.

Now no longer paid to overtreat their patients, doctors are encouraged to limit care to that which is absolutely necessary.

"I think it's pretty clearly possible to overtreat women," Dr. Wood said.

They overtreat."

"Doctors don't want to be flying in the dark, but they are so scared of being sued that they overtreat," Mr. Kiernan said.

"I think you overtreat many patients in the United States," Dr. Johansson said in a telephone interview.

That way H.M.O.'s that pay physicians a salary - which gives them no financial incentive to undertreat or overtreat patients - could advertise that fact.

"We overtreat fever when the child is already happy, and we're trying to make the thermometer happy," said Dr. Richard Gorman, chairman of the drug committee at the pediatrics academy.

"The British think we overdiagnose and overtreat children," said Dr. David G. Fassler, a child psychiatrist at the University of Vermont College of Medicine.

This fraud is tied to the fact that networks of lawyers work with medical care providers to overtreat minor injuries, using M.R.I.'s, physical therapy, massage, thermography, acupuncture, aromatherapy, biofeedback and the like.

Doctors and most Republicans regard it as a very serious burden, not only because some plaintiffs win immense verdicts but also because the threat of being sued forces wasteful habits on doctors who overtreat in self-defense.

Because medical practitioners are either salaried or paid on a capitation basis they have no financial incentive to "overtreat", and the competitive bidding-up of salaries has not been possible when pay and salary structures are nationally negotiated (though this may change in future).

"The people who argue for large doses seem to think the burden of proof is on those of us who advocate small doses when we don't really know the long-term effects of high doses," he said, also noting that a principle of medicine was not to overtreat patients.