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Physician Trainees’ Decision Making and Information Processing: Choice Size and Medicare Part D

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  • Andrew J Barnes
  • Yaniv Hanoch
  • Melissa Martynenko
  • Stacey Wood
  • Thomas Rice
  • Alex D Federman

Abstract

Many patients expect their doctor to help them choose a Medicare prescription drug plan. Whether the size of the choice set affects clinicians’ decision processes and strategy selection, and the quality of their choice, as it does their older patients, is an important question with serious financial consequences. Seventy medical students and internal medicine residents completed a within-subject design using Mouselab, a computer program that allows the information-acquisition process to be examined. We examined highly numerate physician trainees’ decision processes, strategy, and their ability to pick the cheapest drug plan—as price was deemed the most important factor in Medicare beneficiaries’ plan choice—from either 3 or 9 drug plans. Before adjustment, participants were significantly more likely to identify the lowest cost plan when facing three versus nine choices (67.3% vs. 32.8%, p

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  • Andrew J Barnes & Yaniv Hanoch & Melissa Martynenko & Stacey Wood & Thomas Rice & Alex D Federman, 2013. "Physician Trainees’ Decision Making and Information Processing: Choice Size and Medicare Part D," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(10), pages 1-1, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0077096
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077096
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mark Harrison & Carlo A. Marra & Nick Bansback, 2017. "Preferences for ‘New’ Treatments Diminish in the Face of Ambiguity," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(6), pages 743-752, June.

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