Doctors apparently opt out of suggesting generic versions of brand name drugs to their patients.
And the cost of this "oversight"? Probably in the tens of billions a year.
At least that's what researchers from Ohio State and (arch football rival) University of Michigan found when they studied the records of more than 100,000 patient from the 2010 to 2012 period.
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The study looked at the physician recommendations for drugs to their patients, focusing on instances where a generic drug was available for a specific brand name drug.
Over the study period, nearly 10 percent of all expenditures could have been for a generic drug over its brand name drug counterpart. But the patients didn't get the generic, resulting in an estimated "overuse" of $73 billion.
The research further revealed that most of this "overuse" was for garden variety drugs to treat such common maladies as high blood pressure, cholesterol, acid reflux, and depression. Generics are widely available to treat all of these disorders.
The caveat to the study? The bulk of the overspending was traced to situations where no specific generic drug existed for a specific brand name drug. However, the researchers said, in most cases, generics of drugs similar to the brand name drug in question were in good supply and could have been recommended by physicians.
"We're spending so much money, but could save so much if prescribing was more efficient," said Dr. Michael Johansen, a professor of medicine at Ohio State University and one of the co-authors of the study, which appeared in JAMA Internal Medicine. "Clinicians bear some of the brunt. The mirror is staring back at us pretty clearly."
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
