--- title: We Should Teach Doctors to Talk to Patients About Money description: Teaching doctors to talk costs, not just care, with patients, preparing for war in megacities, and more canonical: https://time.com/4286451/teach-doctors-talk-patients-money/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-08T16:01:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:09.088Z article:section: Ideas og:title: We Should Teach Doctors to Talk to Patients About Money og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4286451/teach-doctors-talk-patients-money/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: We Should Teach Doctors to Talk to Patients About Money twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # We Should Teach Doctors to Talk to Patients About Money by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 8, 2016 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 8, 2016 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Doctors should be trained to talk costs — not just care — with patients.**](http://khn.org/news/by-not-discussing-cost-issues-doctors-patients-may-miss-chances-to-lower-out-of-pocket-expenses/) By Shefali Luthra in Kaiser Health News **2\.** [**The U.S. military should prepare for battle — in megacities.**](http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2016/04/06/is-the-u-s-military-prepared-to-fight-in-megacities/) By Chad Serena and Colin Clarke at Reuters **3\.** [**Here’s how drones could transform scientific research.**](https://theconversation.com/how-drones-can-improve-scientific-research-in-the-field-54696) By Elizabeth Basha in the Conversation **4\.** [**It’s easy to fix the Washington D.C. Metro system. Make D.C. a state.**](http://theweek.com/articles/616439/fixing-washington-metro-easy-just-make-dc-state) By Ryan Cooper in the Week **5\.** [**Put more women in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.**](http://www.lennyletter.com/culture/news/a330/the-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame/) By Courtney E. Smith in Lenny  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4286451/teach-doctors-talk-patients-money/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4286451/teach-doctors-talk-patients-money/"},"headline":"We Should Teach Doctors to Talk to Patients About Money","datePublished":"2016-04-08T16:01:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:09.088Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4286451/teach-doctors-talk-patients-money/","keywords":["Innovation","women","war","Washington","Doctor","Drones","Rock and Roll"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4286451/teach-doctors-talk-patients-money/","name":"We Should Teach Doctors to Talk to Patients About Money"}}]}] ```