Physicians' Views Of Formularies: Implications For Medicare Drug Benefit Design

Doctor's opinions on formularies tend to vary with the amount of their practice revenues that comes from capitation.

January/February 2004
Health Affairs , Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 218-226
Bruce Landon, James D. Reschovsky, David Blumenthal

As Congress considers introducing a drug benefit for Medicare, it will more than likely adopt a program that uses a formulary. We examined data from the Community Tracking Study Physicians Survey, a large, nationally representative study of physicians, to learn about physicians’ views of formularies. Our results suggest that several aspects of formularies are associated with physicians’ positive views about them. Policymakers should consider imposing limits on the number of competing Medicare formularies operating in a particular area, promoting the adoption and use of information technology, and incorporatin financial incentives for physicians to adhere to formularies.

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