Rents for Pills: Financial incentives and physician behavior

Abstract

We study the impact of financial incentives on the prescription behavior of physicians based on a recent reform in two large Swiss cities. The reform opened up an additional income channel for physician by allowing them to earn a markup on drugs they prescribe to their patients. We find that the reform leads to an increase in drug costs by about 4%-5% per patient translating to significantly higher physician earnings. The revenue increase can be decomposed into a substitution and rent-seeking component. Our analysis indicates that physicians engage in rent-seeking by substituting larger with smaller packages and by cherry-picking more profitable brands. Although patient health is not sacrificed, the rent-seeking behavior results in unnecessary costs for society.

Keywords: Financial incentives; Health spending; Prescription behavior; Rent-seeking.