title: Are physicians' prescribing decisions sensitive to drug prices? Evidence from a free-antibiotics program.
abstract: This paper investigates whether patient-level factors, in particular cost considerations, affect the physicians' prescribing decisions. In the context of a natural experiment, we examine the effect of the first US commercial free-antibiotics program on retail antibiotic sales. We find an overall increase in antibiotic prescriptions under the program and substitutions to covered antibiotics from not-covered antibiotics. The shift away from not-covered antibiotics, particularly from those without covered equivalents, indicates a change in the physicians' prescribing decisions. We locate stronger program effects in low-income areas. Our findings, robust to a variety of specifications, are in contrast with previous literature.
authors.affiliation: Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Shanjun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ramanan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Laxminarayan
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000191:economics*; D003657:Decision Making; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000191:economics*; D005252:Fees, Pharmaceutical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007345:Insurance Claim Review; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
keywords: antibiotics; natural experiment; prescribing decisions