Survey Suggests Unfavorable Consequences for Increased Copays for Elderly Ambulatory Care

Raising cost sharing for ambulatory care among elderly patients may have negative health consequences and may increase total healthcare costs, according to the results of a study reported in the January 28 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

As Amal N. Trivedi, MD, MPH, from the Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and colleagues write, "When copayments for ambulatory care are increased, elderly patients may forgo important outpatient care, leading to increased use of hospital care." Adding, "There have been remarkably few studies of the consequences of increasing copayments for ambulatory care, and even these studies have been limited because they have excluded elderly patients or have evaluated concurrent changes in cost sharing for ambulatory care and prescription drugs. We therefore examined the effect of increasing copayments for ambulatory care on the use of acute care in the hospital among a large, nationally representative cohort of elderly Medicare enrollees in managed-care plans."

To read the entire study, click here.