NEJM AI study: AI care suggestions cost 3.2x more than physicians' at $314 vs $97 per visit
dvir_a · x · 2026-10-22
Physician Robert Wachter follows up his healthcare-AI alignment argument with new data from a NEJM AI study by Dvir Aran (Technion) and colleagues, comparing 24 AI systems against treating physicians across 200 outpatient and ED visits.
- AI-suggested care cost 3.2x what physicians ordered ($314 vs $97 per visit), split roughly evenly between more testing and more specialty referrals
- In two-thirds of visits, physicians ordered no tests at all; AI recommended standard panels (CBC, metabolic panel, TSH, A1c, lipids) in every one of those cases
- Today's AI practices defensive medicine more aggressively than doctors — the real alignment problem is calibrating cost vs quality, not preventing rogue AI
Related event: NEJM AI Study Finds LLM Clinical Orders Cost Far More Than Physicians'(2 posts)→
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