Demanding Consumers: Consumerist Patients and Quality of Care.

with Hai Fang, John Rizzo, and Richard Zeckhauser. KSG RWP 08-042.

Abstract: Consumerism arises when patients acquire and use medical information from sources other than their physicians.  This practice has been hailed as a means of improving quality.  This need not be the result.  Our theoretical model identifies a channel through which consumerism may reduce quality: consumerist patients place additional demands on their doctors’ time, thus imposing a negative externality on other patients.  Relative to a world in which consumerism does not exist, consumerism may harm other consumerists, non-consumerists, or both.  Data from a large national survey of physicians confirm the negative effects of consumerism: high levels of consumerist patients are associated with lower perceived quality among physicians.

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