Factors associated with prescribing costs: analysis of a nationwide administrative database.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

All health care systems in the world struggle with rising costs for drugs. We sought to explore factors impacting on prescribing costs in a nationwide database of ambulatory care in Germany. Factors identified by this research can be used for adjustment in future profiling efforts.

Methods

We analysed nationwide prescription data of physicians having contractual relationships with statutory health insurance funds in 2014. Predictor and outcome variables were aggregated at the practice level. We performed analyses separately for primary care and specialties of cardiology, gastroenterology, neurology and psychiatry, pulmology as well as oncology and haematology. Bivariate robust regressions and Spearman rank correlations were computed in order to find meaningful pred

SUBMITTER: Hirsch O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5806480 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature