Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

A new study finds that clinicians’ perceptions about patients’ wants versus their actual needs is the primary reason for antibiotic overprescribing. >

Context: The HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded a recent study in Family Practice on the reasons clinicians continue to prescribe antibiotics — especially when they aren’t medically necessary. After interviewing 25 providers in a variety of different states, specialties, and care situations, the researchers came up with three top reasons that clinicians prescribe antibiotics when patients don’t really need them. >

According to the abstract, one factor relates to patient satisfaction. Because patients fork over a lot of money for a visit, many clinicians feel they need to add value to the service by offering an antibiotic, the brief says. >

Another reason points to providers’ worries that they didn’t do enough. They often prescribe medications just in case it turns out the patient needs them later on. This type of overprescribing ties in with financial pressures as well as emotional ones; moreover, clinicians worry about jeopardizing their reputations if they don’t prescribe, the study indicates. >

The final result suggests that persnickety patients refuse to believe they don’t need medications, and clinicians kowtow to demands to avoid a fight, says the abstract. >

>Read more on the AHRQ-funded study in Family Practice at https://academic.oup.com/fampra/advance-article/doi/10.1093/fampra/cmz066/5613669?guestAccessKey=f0b4f204-5a19-4510-9cc0-754b88a2cf8d.>