Medication Costs in Different Provider Settings

Abstract

Comparison was made of the cost of medications between Shared Health Facilities (SHFs) or Medicaid Mills and a Neighborhood Health Center (NHC) for nine conditions in fields of adult medicine, pediatrics, and gynecology. A total of 10 cases from SHF reviews were matched by diagnosis, age, and length of time under care with those in the NHC. For otitis media and pharyngitis in children and questionable urinary tract infection and vaginitis in adult women, the av erage costs were significantly higher in the SHFs. Average costs for family planning services and vagi nal bleeding were higher in the SHFs but not signifi cantly so. Medication costs for children with asthma and adults with bronchitis and hypertension were approximately the same in both settings. The reasons for higher costs included greater use of more expen sive antibiotics, concurrent use of decongestants and antihistamines for infectious conditions of childhood, and dispensing of medications on a "shot-gun" basis without adequate diagnostic studies. The most strik ing difference was the additional average cost of $798 for hospitalization of the SHF patients with vaginal bleeding when D & C and surgery were performed. The NHC women had no hospitalizations as the rec ommended procedure of endocervical biopsy in the office was Center policy. Other quality inferences noted in the NHC, but not in SHFs, were routine performance of throat cultures for pharyngitis, wet smears for vaginitis, and deferral of treatment until cultures were received for urinary tract infection.

The small number of cases for each condition and the large intersample variability were limiting fac tors in this study, but the findings do suggest that higher standards of care contribute to lower therapy costs.