An Investigation of Medical Decision Making BIAS Using Patient Penal Status

Abstract

When providing medical care, doctors are constantly required to make complex decisions based on a wide variety of information sources. As the US health care system becomes more complex with managed care, new regulations for prescription drugs, and other factors, it will become easier for bias to be introduced into the decision making process. This study investigates medical treatment decisions and seeks to identify paths through which bias can be introduced. Patient penal status was used as a proxy for patient variables that in theory should not affect care decisions but in practice often do. The results of the study show that penal patients are less likely to receive required and recommended treatments and that these differences are not due to differences in race, age, or gender of the prisoner population. Additional research is needed to identify the organizational or contextual factors that lead to differences in the provision of medical care.