COMMENTS AND RESPONSES The Relationship Between Hospitalists and Primary Care Physicians TO THE EDITOR: Beckman’s thoughtful article (1) raises important

questions regarding communication among hospitalists, patients, and primary care physicians. The field of hospital medicine contin-ues to work on improving communication and transitions. As might be expected, some hospitalist programs communicate better than others—just like every other specialty and specialist. Beckman’s article also raises the question of whether hospitalists might increase hospital costs through redundant testing, but almost all relevant studies (2–4) have shown that hospitalists decrease over-all hospital costs. Approximately one half of U.S. hospitals now have hospitalists, and more than 90 % support the practice with hospital dollars (3, 5). Given the dominant diagnosis-related group payment system, to argue that hospitalists are wasting money overall would be to argue that hospitals are acting against their interests by supporting their hospitalist programs. It is more likely that hospitalists order some repeated or unnecessary tests but save more money by drivin