Malpractice Claim Fears and the Costs of Treating Medicare Patients: A New Approach to Estimating the Costs of Defensive Medicine.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To estimate the cost of defensive medicine among elderly Medicare patients.

Data sources

We use a 2008 national physician survey linked to respondents' elderly Medicare patients' claims data.

Study design

Using a sample of survey respondent/beneficiary dyads stratified by physician specialty, we estimated cross-sectional regressions of annual costs on patient covariates and a medical malpractice fear index formed from five validated physician survey questions. Defensive medicine costs were calculated as the difference between observed patient costs and those under hypothetical alternative levels of malpractice concern, and then aggregated to estimate average defensive medicine costs per beneficiary.

Data collection methods

The physician survey was con

SUBMITTER: Reschovsky JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5980310 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature