Extended Office Hours Associated With Lower Health Expenditures

Date: Sep-12-2012Patients who have access to a regular source of health care that offers evening and weekend hours have significantly lower health expenditures than those who do not.

Analyzing data on more than 30,000 patients from the 2000-2008 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys, researchers found total expenditures were 10 percent lower among patients reporting access to extended hours in two successive years compared with those lacking such access.

The researchers link the association to lower prescription drug and office visit-related (e.g., testing) expenditures. Importantly, the reduced expenditures did not have any apparent adverse effects on mortality.

The authors call for future research to formally test their hypothesis that extended office hours may be associated with relatively judicious use of primary health care resources, including more generic medication prescribing and less discretionary testing.

Extended Office Hours and Health Care Expenditures: A National Study

By Anthony Jerant, MD, et al

University of California Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento
Courtesy: Medical News Today Note: Any medical information available in this news section is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional.