Physicians Changed Prescribing Patterns After Medicare Part D Limited Patient Out-Of-Pocket Costs

After Medicare Part D went into effect, physician prescribing behavior changed in response to the change in patient out-of-pocket costs for medications. Compared to before Part D went into effect in 2006, the number of prescription drugs prescribed or continued per visit increased by 35%, and the number of generic drugs prescribed increased by 55%.

These findings were reported in “The Impact of Health Insurance Expansion on Physician Treatment Choice: Medicare Part D and Physician Prescribing” by Ianyan Hu, Sandra L. Decker, Shin-Yi Chou. The researchers tested the impact of Medicare Part D by analyzing data for . . .