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Biomedical subjects

M K Wynia

Publications and source records attributed to M K Wynia.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Effects of different monetary incentives on the return rate of a national mail survey of physicians.

BACKGROUND: Mail surveys of physicians have been characterized by lower response rates than general population surveys, raising concerns about nonresponse bias. Although monetary incentives have routinely been used to improve survey response among physicians, questions remain regarding how much of an incentive is most cost-effective. The present study seeks to further examine the effects of incentive size on response rates to a national mail survey of physicians. METHODS: This study used a random sample of 873 physicians practicing in the United States; the response rate was 65% (n = 563). Respondents were randomly assigned to receive a $5, $10, or $20 cash incentive in the initial mailing. Except for the magnitude of the incentive, the procedures for each condition were identical, with each respondent receiving up to 3 follow-up mailings and 2 telephone calls. RESULTS: Overall response rates ranged from 60.3% for the $5 incentive category to 68.0% for the $10 incentive category. Differences in overall response rates across the incentive categories, however, were not significant. Higher levels of incentives also did not significantly reduce the number of mail and/or telephone interventions required to reach the target response rate of 60.0%. As expected, aggregate costs (excluding labor) were lowest for the $5 incentive group. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that changes in the magnitude of incentive do not automatically result in increases in survey response among physicians. Possible reasons for this lack of effect as well as alternatives to monetary incentives are addressed.

Bias↗
PubMed2001

Shared expectations for protection of identifiable health care information: report of a national consensus process.

OBJECTIVE: The Ethical Force Program is a collaborative effort to create performance measures for ethics in health care. This report lays out areas of consensus that may be amenable to performance measurement on protecting the privacy, confidentiality and security of identifiable health information. DESIGN: Iterative consensus development process. PARTICIPANTS: The program's oversight body and its expert panel on privacy include national leaders representing the perspectives of physicians, patients, purchasers, health plans, hospitals, and medical ethicists as well as public health, law, and medical informatics experts. METHODS AND MAIN RESULTS: The oversight body appointed a national Expert Advisory Panel on Privacy and Confidentiality in September 1998. This group compiled and reviewed existing norms, including governmental reports and legal standards, professional association policies, private organization statements and policies, accreditation standards, and ethical opinions. A set of specific and assessable expectations for ethical conduct in this domain was then drafted and refined through 7 meetings over 16 months. In the final 2 iterations, each expectation was graded on a scale of 1 to 10 by each oversight body member on whether it was: (1) important, (2) universally applicable, (3) feasible to measure, and (4) realistic to implement. The expectations that did not score more than 7 (mean) on all 4 scales were reconsidered and retained only if the entire oversight body agreed that they should be used as potential subjects for performance measurement. Consensus was achieved on 34 specific expectations. The expectations fell into 8 content areas, addressing the need for transparency of policies and practices, consent for use and disclosure of identifiable information, limitations on information that can be collected and by whom, individual access to one's own health records, security requirements for storage and transfer of information, provisions to ensure ongoing data quality, limitations on how identifiable information may be used, and provisions for meaningful accountability. CONCLUSIONS: This process established consensus on 34 measurable ethical expectations for the protection of privacy and confidentiality in health care. These expectations should apply to any organization with access to personally identifiable health information, including managed care organizations, physician groups, hospitals, other provider organizations, and purchasers. Performance measurement on these expectations may improve accountability across the health care system.

Confidentiality↗
PubMed2000

Physician manipulation of reimbursement rules for patients: between a rock and a hard place.

CONTEXT: Health plan utilization review rules are intended to enforce insurance contracts and can alter and constrain the services that physicians provide to their patients. Physicians can manipulate these rules, but how often they do so is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency with which physicians manipulate reimbursement rules to obtain coverage for services they perceive as necessary, and the physician attitudes and personal and practice characteristics associated with these manipulations. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A random national sample of 1124 practicing physicians was surveyed by mail in 1998; the response rate was 64% (n = 720). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Use of 3 different tactics "sometimes" or more often in the last year: (1) exaggerating the severity of patients' conditions; (2) changing patients' billing diagnoses; and/or (3) reporting signs or symptoms that patients did not have to help the patients secure coverage for needed care. RESULTS: Thirty-nine percent of physicians reported using at least 1 tactic "sometimes" or more often in the last year. In multivariate models comparing these physicians with physicians who "never" or "rarely" used any of these tactics, physicians using these tactics were more likely to (1) believe that "gaming the system" is necessary to provide high-quality care today (odds ratio [OR], 3.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.54-5.29); (2) have received requests from patients to deceive insurers (OR, 2.44; 95% CI, 1.72-3.45); (3) feel pressed for time during patient visits (OR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.21-2.37); and (4) have more than 25% of their patients covered by Medicaid (OR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.08-2.38). Notably, greater worry about prosecution for fraud did not affect physicians' use of these tactics (P = .34). Of those reporting using these tactics, 54% reported doing so more often now than 5 years ago. CONCLUSIONS: A sizable minority of physicians report manipulating reimbursement rules so patients can receive care that physicians perceive is necessary. Unless novel strategies are developed to address this, greater utilization restrictions in the health care system are likely to increase physicians' use of such manipulative "covert advocacy" tactics.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1999

Physician-patient communication about complementary and alternative medical therapies: a survey of physicians caring for patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection.

OBJECTIVE: To examine frequency and correlates of physicians' reports of discussions with patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) about complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies. DESIGN: Mailed physician survey. SETTING: The setting was Eastern Massachusetts. PARTICIPANTS: Participants included 89 physicians caring for patients with HIV. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Physicians were asked how common the use of CAM therapies was among their patients, how useful these therapies were, how often they discussed the use of CAM therapies with new and follow-up patients, and whether they had used a CAM therapy themselves in the last year. We also collected information on physicians' sociodemographic and practice characteristics. Sixty-eight percent (89/130) of physicians responded, and 26% and 5% reported discussing CAM therapies with HIV-infected patients at most new and follow-up visits, respectively. Respondents' attitudes toward the use of CAM therapies were generally positive, and they believed their HIV-infected patients used CAM therapies more than their non-HIV infected patients. The majority (63%) believed that CAM therapies may be helpful for HIV-infected patients. Thirty-six percent (36%) had used a CAM therapy themselves in the last year. In multivariate analyses, only the belief that CAM therapies are helpful was correlated with discussion of CAM therapies (p = 0.006). Respondents' demographic characteristics, training, personal use of CAM therapies, reported visit length, and satisfaction with visit length were not associated with discussion of CAM therapies. CONCLUSIONS: Despite awareness that their HIV-infected patients commonly use CAM therapies and positive attitudes towards such therapies, most of these physicians did not routinely discuss CAM therapies with them. Barriers to physician-patient communication about CAM therapies merit further investigation.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Analysis of life-long strategies to prevent Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in patients with variable HIV progression rates.

OBJECTIVE: To compare strategies for life-long prophylaxis of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) in a group of AIDS patients with a wide range of disease progression rates. DESIGN: Markov decision models. METHODS: Prophylaxis strategies using high and low doses of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TS), dapsone, and/or aerosolized pentamidine in sequence, were compared. Efficacy and toxicity rates for prophylaxis regimens were taken from a meta-analysis of pertinent randomized controlled trials. Outcomes measured included lifetime episodes of PCP and drug toxicity per 100 patients treated, average life expectancy, and cost. RESULTS: For patients with an expected survival of 3 years after commencement of prophylaxis, the use of standard or low dose TS as the first choice agent was comparable, and both were superior to the other strategies for preventing PCP (between nine and 26 fewer episodes of PCP per 100 patients treated) though they were more toxic (11-44 more episodes of toxicity per 100 patients treated). Life expectancy was similar for all of the treatment strategies. With slower rates of disease progression (expected survival > 3.8 years), as seen with current antiretroviral regimens, the use of low dose TS as the first choice agent dominated the use of standard dose TS; when the expected survival time was 7 years, initial use of low dose TS led to 2.8 fewer episodes of PCP per 100 patients treated, 32 fewer episodes of toxicity per 100 patients treated, and US$1381 per patient lower cost, compared with prophylaxis with standard dose TS. CONCLUSION: For patients with AIDS and expected survival > 3.8 years, low dose TS is better than standard dose TS as the first choice agent for preventing PCP. As patients with AIDS live longer, the routine use of low dose TS will be more than adequate for patients at risk for PCP.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗
PubMed1997

Physicians' views on capitated payment for medical care: does familiarity foster acceptance?

Physicians' attitudes toward capitated payment have not been quantified. We sought to assess physicians' views on capitated payment and to compare the views of those who did and did not participate in such payment. A written survey was given to 200 physicians with admitting privileges at a 600-bed Ohio hospital; 82 (41%) responded and were included in this study. Among respondents, 21 (26%) were primary care physicians, 18 (22%) were medical subspecialists, and 18 (22%) were surgeons. Fifty-eight (71%) were providers for managed care plans, and 35 (43%) participated in capitated payment arrangements. Among physicians who did not participate in capitated care, 100% believed that there was a conflict of interest in capitated payment, and 77% (23 physicians) believed that participation in plans that reduce physician income in proportion to medical expenditures is not acceptable. Among those who did participate in capitated payment contracts, 95% (41 physicians) believed these plans posed a conflict of interest, and 72% (31 physicians) said this was not acceptable (P = 0.4 and 0.66 for each comparison). There was no trend toward the opinion that capitated payment arrangements are acceptable with greater levels of experience in capitated care (P = 0.5 by Spearman test). There were trends suggesting that compared with those who were not receiving capitated payments, those who received capitated payment were 50% more likely to have never discussed capitated payment with any patient (63% versus 42%, P = 0.08), were 70% more likely to very strongly oppose the use of capitation to pay their own family's physicians (49% versus 29%, P = 0.07), and were 30% more likely to believe that it is impossible to stay in the practice of medicine without participating in capitated payment plans (84% versus 65%, P = 0.06). None of the respondents reported that they had a contractual "gag clause," but 34% (27 physicians) said they would not speak publicly about any perceived risks of capitated payments anyway. Among this sample of physicians, those who participated in existing capitated payment managed care plans had views that were as negative, or more negative, on the acceptability of capitated payment as did those of nonparticipating physicians. Many were participating in capitated payment plans in spite of these negative views because they feared that to do otherwise would force them out of medical practice. The hypotheses generated by this study must be tested in larger, national studies.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗