An empirical investigation on the economic impact of shared patient information among doctors
- Authors
- Jung, Dain; Kwak, Do Won; Kim, Hye-Jin; Kim, Minki
- Issue Date
- 14-7월-2020
- Publisher
- ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
- Keywords
- physician-induced demand; drug utilization review; Principal-agent problem; information transmission; medical costs
- Citation
- APPLIED ECONOMICS, v.52, no.33, pp.3555 - 3573
- Indexed
- SSCI
SCOPUS
- Journal Title
- APPLIED ECONOMICS
- Volume
- 52
- Number
- 33
- Start Page
- 3555
- End Page
- 3573
- URI
- https://scholar.korea.ac.kr/handle/2021.sw.korea/54396
- DOI
- 10.1080/00036846.2020.1713984
- ISSN
- 0003-6846
- Abstract
- This study investigates how an increase in patient information sharing among doctors impacts healthcare costs. To this end, we explore this impact through two mechanisms - the informative role of patient health conditions and the cross-monitoring role against doctor-driven induced healthcare demands. We utilize a unique policy intervention (a drug utilization review) introduced in 2009 in Korea that enables doctors to share outpatients' prescription histories. Using difference-in-differences, we found that, when patient information is improved, there is a reduction in pharmaceutical spending. This result is especially true for those patients who have relatively weak information-sharing capabilities. Using data on the amount of antibiotics prescribed for the common cold, we find that a cross-monitoring of prescriptions among doctors reduces the amount of unnecessary prescriptions and thus healthcare spending.
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Collections - Graduate School of International Studies > International Studies > 1. Journal Articles
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