IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v29y2020i9p957-974.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How well do doctors know their patients? Evidence from a mandatory access prescription drug monitoring program

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas C. Buchmueller
  • Colleen M. Carey
  • Giacomo Meille

Abstract

Many opioid control policies target the prescribing behavior of health care providers. In this paper, we study the first comprehensive state‐level policy requiring providers to access patients' opioid history before making prescribing decisions. We compare prescribers in Kentucky, which implemented this policy in 2012, to those in a control state, Indiana. Our main difference‐in‐differences analysis uses the universe of prescriptions filled in the two states to assess how the information provided affected prescribing behavior. We find that a significant share of low‐volume providers stopped prescribing opioids altogether after the policy was implemented, though this change accounted for a small share of the reduction in total volume. The most important margin of response was to prescribe opioids to fewer patients. Although providers disproportionately discontinued treating patients whose opioid histories showed the use of multiple providers, there were also economically meaningful reductions for patients without multiple providers and single‐use acute patients.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas C. Buchmueller & Colleen M. Carey & Giacomo Meille, 2020. "How well do doctors know their patients? Evidence from a mandatory access prescription drug monitoring program," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(9), pages 957-974, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:29:y:2020:i:9:p:957-974
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.4020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4020
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.4020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abby Alpert & David Powell & Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, 2018. "Supply-Side Drug Policy in the Presence of Substitutes: Evidence from the Introduction of Abuse-Deterrent Opioids," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 1-35, November.
    2. Molly Schnell & Janet Currie, 2018. "Addressing the Opioid Epidemic: Is There a Role for Physician Education?," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(3), pages 383-410, Summer.
    3. Angélica Meinhofer, 2018. "Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs: The Role of Asymmetric Information on Drug Availability and Abuse," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(4), pages 504-526, Fall.
    4. Stephen G. Donald & Kevin Lang, 2007. "Inference with Difference-in-Differences and Other Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(2), pages 221-233, May.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    6. William N. Evans & Ethan M. J. Lieber & Patrick Power, 2019. "How the Reformulation of OxyContin Ignited the Heroin Epidemic," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(1), pages 1-15, March.
    7. Anca M. Grecu & Dhaval M. Dave & Henry Saffer, 2019. "Mandatory Access Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs and Prescription Drug Abuse," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(1), pages 181-209, January.
    8. Kennedy-Hendricks, A. & Richey, M. & McGinty, E.E. & Stuart, E.A. & Barry, C.L. & Webster, D.W., 2016. "Opioid overdose deaths and Florida's crackdown on pill mills," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 106(2), pages 291-297.
    9. Thomas C. Buchmueller & Colleen Carey, 2018. "The Effect of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs on Opioid Utilization in Medicare," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 77-112, February.
    10. Jill Horwitz & Corey S. Davis & Lynn S. McClelland & Rebecca S. Fordon & Ellen Meara, 2018. "The Problem of Data Quality in Analyses of Opioid Regulation: The Case of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs," NBER Working Papers 24947, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Angélica Meinhofer, 2018. "Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs: The Role of Asymmetric Information on Drug Availability and Abuse," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 4(4), pages 504-526, Fall.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Simone Balestra & Helge Liebert & Nicole Maestas & Tisamarie B. Sherry, 2021. "Behavioral Responses to Supply-Side Drug Policy During the Opioid Epidemic," NBER Working Papers 29596, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Daniel Avdic & Katharina E. Blankart, 2021. "A hard look at soft cost-control measures in healthcare organizations: Evidence from preferred drug policies in Germany," Papers 2021-07, Centre for Health Economics, Monash University.
    3. Li Su & Mingxiao Sha & Ruixue Liu, 2024. "Medical insurance, labor supply, and anti‐poverty initiatives: Micro‐evidence from China," International Studies of Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(2), pages 268-292, June.
    4. Johanna Catherine Maclean & Justine Mallatt & Christopher J. Ruhm & Kosali Simon, 2022. "The Opioid Crisis, Health, Healthcare, and Crime: A Review of Quasi-Experimental Economic Studies," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 703(1), pages 15-49, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shishir Shakya & Collin Hodges, 2023. "Must‐access prescription drug monitoring programs and retail opioid sales," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(1), pages 146-165, January.
    2. Simone Balestra & Helge Liebert & Nicole Maestas & Tisamarie B. Sherry, 2021. "Behavioral Responses to Supply-Side Drug Policy During the Opioid Epidemic," NBER Working Papers 29596, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Dhaval Dave & Monica Deza & Brady Horn, 2021. "Prescription drug monitoring programs, opioid abuse, and crime," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(3), pages 808-848, January.
    4. Kim, Bokyung, 2021. "Must-access prescription drug monitoring programs and the opioid overdose epidemic: The unintended consequences," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    5. Janssen, Aljoscha & Zhang, Xuan, 2020. "Retail Pharmacies and Drug Diversion during the Opioid Epidemic," Working Paper Series 1373, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    6. Thomas C. Buchmueller & Colleen M. Carey & Giacomo Meille, 2019. "How Well Do Doctors Know Their Patients? Evidence from a Mandatory Access Prescription Drug Monitoring Program," NBER Working Papers 26159, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. David Cho & Daniel I. García & Joshua Montes & Alison E. Weingarden, 2021. "Labor Market Effects of the Oxycodone-Heroin Epidemic," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2021-025, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    8. Daniele, Gianmarco & Le Moglie, Marco & Masera, Federico, 2023. "Pains, guns and moves: The effect of the U.S. opioid epidemic on Mexican migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    9. Gihleb, Rania & Giuntella, Osea & Zhang, Ning, 2020. "Prescription drug monitoring programs and neonatal outcomes," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    10. David Powell & Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, 2021. "The Evolving Consequences of OxyContin Reformulation on Drug Overdoses," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(1), pages 41-67.
    11. Aliprantis, Dionissi & Fee, Kyle & Schweitzer, Mark E., 2023. "Opioids and the labor market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    12. Deiana, Claudio & Giua, Ludovica, 2018. "The US Opidemic: Prescription Opioids, Labour Market Conditions and Crime," MPRA Paper 85712, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. David Cho & Alvaro Mezza & Joshua Montes, 2022. "Choices and Implications when Measuring the Local Supply of Prescription Opioids," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2022-078, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    14. Johanna Catherine Maclean & Justine Mallatt & Christopher J. Ruhm & Kosali Simon, 2022. "The Opioid Crisis, Health, Healthcare, and Crime: A Review of Quasi-Experimental Economic Studies," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 703(1), pages 15-49, September.
    15. Janet Currie & Hannes Schwandt, 2021. "The Opioid Epidemic Was Not Caused by Economic Distress but by Factors That Could Be More Rapidly Addressed," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 695(1), pages 276-291, May.
    16. Alexander Ahammer & Martin Halla, 2022. "The intergenerational persistence of opioid dependence: Evidence from administrative data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(11), pages 2425-2444, November.
    17. Ruhm, Christopher J., 2019. "Drivers of the fatal drug epidemic," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 25-42.
    18. Alexander Ahammer & Martin Halla, 2020. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Opioid Dependence: Evidence from Administrative Data," CDL Aging, Health, Labor working papers 2020-02, The Christian Doppler (CD) Laboratory Aging, Health, and the Labor Market, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    19. Claudio Deiana & Ludovica Giua & Roberto Nisticò, 2024. "Opium Price Shocks and Prescription Opioids in the USA," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 86(3), pages 449-484, June.
    20. Gupta, Sumedha & Nguyen, Thuy & Freeman, Patricia R. & Simon, Kosali, 2023. "Competitive effects of federal and state opioid restrictions: Evidence from the controlled substance laws," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:29:y:2020:i:9:p:957-974. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.