Heterogeneity in Cost-Sharing and Cost-Sensitivity, and the Role of the Prescribing Physician / Mariana Carrera, Dana Goldman, Geoffrey Joyce.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carrera, Mariana.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Goldman, Dana.

Joyce, Geoffrey.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w19186.

NBER working paper series no. w19186

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2013.

Summary:

In this paper, we use individual level data on purchases of one of the most prescribed categories of drugs (cholesterol-lowering statins) to study the responses of physicians and patients to variation in the cost of drugs. In a sample of first-time statin prescriptions to employees from a group of Fortune 500 firms, we find that copay variation across plans has a relatively small effect on the choice of drug, and this effect does not vary with patient income. After the highly-publicized expiration of the patent for Zocor (simvastatin), however, prescriptions for this drug increased substantially, especially for lower-income patients. Our analysis suggests that physicians can perceive the adherence elasticity of their patients and adjust their initial prescriptions accordingly, but only in response to a large and universal price change. Using prescriber identifiers, we present suggestive evidence that physicians learn about a patient's price sensitivity through their own experience of prescribing to that patient.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2013.