Custom made versus ready to wear treatments
Subtitle: behavioral propensities in physician's choices
By: Richard G. Frank, Richard J. Zeckhauser.
Contributors: Zeckhauser, Richard.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- no. 13445.; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research) -- working paper no. 13445.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 56
Subjects: Medical care -- Decision making; Physicians -- Decision making; Physicians -- Attitudes; Physician and patient; Social medicine
Description: To customize treatments to individual patients entails costs of coordination and cognition. Thus, providers sometimes choose treatments based on norms for broad classes of patients. We develop behavioral hypotheses explaining when and why doctors customize to the particular patient, and when instead they employ "ready-to-wear" treatments. Our empirical studies examining length of office visits and physician prescribing behavior find evidence of norm-following behavior. Some such behavior, from our studies and from the literature, proves sensible; but other behavior seems far from optimal.
Notes: "September 2007"

Includes bibliographical references (p. 46-48).

Also available in PDF from the NBER World Wide Web site (www.nber.org).