Doctors Generally Unaware of Medicine Costs When Prescribing, Study Finds
Doctors often do not know how much prescription drugs cost and how much patients pay for them, leading them to unknowingly prescribe more expensive drugs that contribute to increased health care costs or cause patients not to fill prescriptions because of price, according to a study in the January issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Long Island Newsday reports. Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine prepared an eight-page "pocket guide" that outlines average wholesale prices for more than 100 commonly used drugs, Newsday reports. They then distributed the guide and gave a 45-minute presentation on drug costs to doctors at four teaching hospitals in New York and northern New Jersey in 1998. Participating doctors showed "modest" improvements in awareness of prescription drug cost issues, researchers found in follow-ups conducted in 1999. About 27% of physicians reported that after they received the guide, they asked patients about out-of-pocket drug costs, compared to 22% who asked before the receiving the guide, Newsday reports. Still, 72% of doctors said they remained "unaware of drug costs," even after receiving the guide; 77% said they were unaware of drug costs before using the guide, according to Newsday. In addition, researchers said, "One in four physicians [in the study] still seemed unaware that Medicare does not pay for outpatient drugs. Knowledge of actual drug costs improved, but underestimates were still fairly common." Dr. Ethan Halm, a health policy specialist at Mount Sinai and a study author, said that although cost is not the only issue with prescribing drugs, "it's obviously a very important one." Michael Ernst, a clinical pharmacist and author of a previous study on doctors' awareness of drug costs, said that "at the very minimum" doctors should ask patients what type of insurance they have, and patients also should ask doctors questions about what kind of drug they are receiving and if a generic version is available (Lane, Long Island Newsday, 2/4).
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