Along with the recommendations to cut down on these procedures, an education campaign called Choosing Wisely was launched with the goal to start the important conversation between doctors and patients about the necessity, or lack thereof, of these commonly ordered tests.

CNN: Doctors and patients should talk more, test less

By providing a specific list of procedures to question -- and to cut down -- the medical community hopes to push us in the right direction.

CNN: Doctors and patients should talk more, test less

Experts believed that tough, top-down controls would dispense with inefficiencies: Insurance companies would relentlessly cut back payments for hundreds of medical procedures, which would force hospitals, clinics and physicians to get their acts together, thereby boosting productivity and cutting costs. (Managed care's methods are close cousins to what you see in nationalized health care systems.) Because of these anticipated efficiencies, experts figured we would need fewer doctors.

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