Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future

by Martin Ford

Now assume that the doctor has a financial interest in the diagnostic company that performs the tests or scans. Or, then again, maybe the hospital has acquired the doctor’s practice and also owns the testing facility. The prices for the tests and scans bear little relation to the actual costs of these services—after all, they’re listed in the chargemaster—and they are highly profitable. Every time our doctor presses her touch screen, she essentially mints money.

there is an abundance of evidence demonstrating that new health care technologies very often lead to more spending rather than improved productivity.

The three years between 2006 and 2009 saw a 68 percent increase in the rate of “prescription abandonment” in the United States.