Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) held a medical conference, asking doctors to stop prescribing antibiotics unnecessarily. Officials state that antibiotics should be administered for bacterial infections, but not viral infections such as the common cold. Sen. Edward Kennedy, who spoke during the medical conference, said that he and Sen. Bill Frist plan to introduce legislation to address the issue of antimicrobial resistance.

Coincidentally, earlier this year Aetna U.S. Healthcare claimed it was working with the CDC to implement a physician-education program promoting CDC's principles for the appropriate use of antibiotics. An Aetna U.S. Health-care official summed up the problem: "Each time antibiotics are taken, sensitive bacteria are killed while resistant ones may be left to grow and multiply."

It's estimated that U.S. physicians annually write $50 million worth of ineffective, unneeded prescriptions.