Physician beliefs and patient preferences
Subtitle: a new look at regional variation in health care spending
By: David Cutler, Harvard University, Jonathan Skinner, Dartmouth College, Ariel Dora Stern, Harvard Business School, David Wennberg, Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice
Edition: Revised edition
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 15-090; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 15-090
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2017
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 37
Description: There is considerable controversy about the causes of regional variations in health care expenditures. We use vignettes from patient and physician surveys linked to fee-for-service Medicare expenditures to test whether patient demand-side factors or physician supply-side factors explain regional variations in spending. We find patient demand is relatively unimportant in explaining variation in spending after accounting for physician beliefs. Physician organizational factors matter, but the single most important factor is physician beliefs about treatment: 35% of Medicare end-of-life spending, 12% of spending for heart attack patients, and 12% of total Medicare spending are associated with physician beliefs unsupported by clinical evidence.
Notes: "May 2015" (Revised December 2017.)--Publisher's Web site.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 32-37).