Physician-Driven Variation in Nonrecommended Services Among Older Adults Diagnosed With Cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Interventions to address overuse of health care services may help reduce costs and improve care. Understanding physician-level variation and behavior patterns can inform such interventions.

Objective

To assess patterns of physician ordering of services that tend to be overused in the treatment of patients with cancer. We hypothesized that physicians exhibit consistent behavior.

Design, setting, and participants

Retrospective study of patients 66 years and older diagnosed with cancer between 2004 and 2011, using population-based Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare data to assess physician-level variation in 5 nonrecommended services. Services included imaging for staging and surveillance in low-risk disease, intensity-modulated radiat

SUBMITTER: Lipitz-Snyderman A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5363077 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature