Second Opinion

Best Doctors, a health benefit offered through hundreds of insurers, health plans, and companies, is one way to help prevent misdiagnose or wrong treatment.

Founded by physicians affiliated with Harvard University School of Medicine, the Boston-based company offers its members in 30 countries customized second opinions from its network of top specialists and sub-specialists around the world.

As cited in Readers Digest, scans of a 12 y.o. girl in Maine that showed tumors in her liver and one lung, an apparent relapse from the rare form of cancer she battled as a toddler per her doctors. When the biopsy came back negative for malignant cancer, no one knew what to do.

The girl's father decided to try Best Doctors, a benefit offered and paid for by his employer. After top experts reviewed the girl's scans and records, they concluded the masses in the liver were a side effect from a drug she had taken years ago, while a spot on the lung was damaged tissue from previous surgeries. The treatment? Leave harmless masses alone. The review helped avoid further biopsies and costly invasive surgeries.

Payoff: EMC Corporation, a large technology firm in Hopkinton, MA, consulted Best Doctors on 60 cases in its first year using the program. Diagnoses were changed in 15% of those and treatments were modified in 85%, resulting in $500,000 in savings. "If everyone got the right diagnosis and treatment the first time," says Evan Falchuk, president of Best Doctors, "we could save tens of billions of dollars and an untold amount of unnecessary suffering and give millions of people the best chance to get well."

For more information, go to bestdoctors.com or ask your employer's benefits department about a second-opinion program.