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The effect of drug cost on hypertension treatment decision
1Internal Medicine C Department, Rabin Medical Center-Golda Campus, Petah Tiqva, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Insights
Physician awareness of drug costs significantly influences hypertension treatment choices. This knowledge can lead to prescribing less expensive medications, potentially reducing healthcare expenses.
Area of Science:
- Health Economics
- Pharmacoeconomics
- Clinical Decision-Making
Background:
- Rising healthcare costs necessitate cost-saving strategies in medical practice.
- Physician prescribing habits are a key factor in pharmaceutical expenditure.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether physicians' awareness of drug costs impacts their prescription decisions for hypertension.
- To assess potential cost savings in hypertension management through informed prescribing.
Main Methods:
- A questionnaire-based study involving 60 physicians (30 family, 30 hospital).
- Two phases: Phase I (no cost information) and Phase II (cost information provided).
- Participants evaluated hypothetical cases of moderate hypertension in young and elderly patients.
Main Results:
- Awareness of drug costs led to a significant decrease in prescribing expensive drugs for younger patients (60% family physicians, 87% hospital physicians).
- Family physicians consistently preferred less expensive drugs for elderly patients across both phases.
- 25% of hospital physicians shifted to less expensive drugs for elderly patients in Phase II.
Conclusions:
- Physician knowledge of drug prices can directly influence prescription patterns.
- Informed prescribing based on cost awareness offers a viable strategy for healthcare cost reduction.
- This effect is observed across different physician groups and patient demographics.
Abstract:
The cost of medical care is constantly increasing. Therefore, ways of saving expenses should be considered. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the possibility than an awareness of the cost of drugs for treatment of hypertension may affect physicians' prescription decisions. A questionnaire containing the clinical data of a young and an elderly imaginary patient with moderate hypertension was given to 30 family physicians and 30 hospital physicians together with a list of appropriate drugs (phase I). This was repeated as phase II except that for this stage the cost of the drugs was brought to the participants' attention. Knowing the cost of the drugs caused a decrease in prescription of the more expensive drugs for the younger patients; of 60% (family physicians) and 87% (hospital physicians). For their elderly patients family physicians preferred the less expensive drugs at both phases. 25% of the hospital doctors changed their preference towards less expensive drugs at phase II. For the younger patient, no correlation was found between the number of years of physicians' practice and the cost of the drugs chosen. For the elderly patient, physicians from both groups preferred less expensive drugs at phase II without any relation to their years of practice. The results of this study indicate that a knowledge of the price of the drugs may affect physicians' prescription decisions, a fact that may result in considerable saving by health providing organizations.