Doctors skip talk of drug costs

Doctors discuss the cost of drugs only about a third of the time when they prescribe them to patients, U.S. researchers have found.

They also fail to discuss important issues such as getting refills, options for generics and insurance coverage, the researchers report in the November issue of the American Journal of Managed Care.

“These can be important barriers to patient medication adherence,” said UCLA’s Dr. Derjung Tarn, who led the study. Tarn’s team looked at patient and doctor surveys and transcripts of 185 audio-taped patient visits at two healthcare systems in California from January to November 1999.

These visits involved 15 family physicians, 18 internists and 11 cardiologists, who among them prescribed 243 new drugs. In only 33% of the cases did the doctors talk about cost, insurance, generic or brand names, logistics, supply or refills. Patients asked about costs or insurance in just 2% of the cases.