Paying physicians less for a commonly administered prostate cancer therapy can help curb inappropriate use and save health care dollars, without having a negative impact on people who need the treatment, according to a new study in The New England Journal of Medicine.
University of Florida urologist Scott Gilbert, M.D., and colleagues at the University of Michigan and the University of Texas Medical Branch evaluated national patterns of how doctors prescribed a hormone treatment called androgen deprivation therapy before and after the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services lowered the associated reimbursement rates.
Among people for whom the treatment was considered necessary, there was no decline in use when payments were lowered. In contrast, use of the therapy fell more than 30 percent among patients for whom there is no medical evidence that it is beneficial.