“An important idea is getting its test run in America: the creation of intensive outpatient care to target hot spots and thereby reduce over-all health care costs.”

Atul Gawande devotes 10 pages in the Jan. 24 edition of the New Yorker to discussing that idea. In cutting detail, the Boston surgeon illustrates the challenges many of the costliest patients face. In turn, he describes the difficulties health care providers confront when dealing with those patients. To date, the system has failed, resulting in fragmented but extremely costly care that leaves patients no healthier.

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