Impact of non-medical switching of prescription medications on health outcomes: an e-survey of high-volume medicare and medicaid physician providers

Background: Non-medical switching refers to a change in a stable patient’s prescribed medication to a clinically distinct, non-generic, alternative for reasons other than poor clinical response, side-effects or non-adherence. Objective: To assess the perceptions of high-volume Medicare and/or Medicaid physician providers regarding the impact non-medical switching has on their patients’ medication-related outcomes and health-care utilization. Methods: We performed an e-survey of high-volume Medicare and/or Medicaid physicians (spending >50% of their time caring for Medicare and/or Medicaid patients), practicing for >2 years but <30 years post-residency and/or fellowship; working in a general, internal, family medicine or specialist setting; spending ≥40% of their time providing direct care and having received ≥1 request for a non-medical switch in the past 12 months. Physicians were queried on 15-items to assess perceptions regarding the impact non-medical switching on medication-related outcomes and health-care utilization. Results: Three-hundred and fifty physicians were included. Respondents reported they felt non-medical switching, to some degree, increased side-effects (54.0%), medication errors (56.0%) and medication abandonment (60.3%), and ~50% believed it increased patients’ out-of-pocket costs. Few physicians (≤13.4% for each) felt non-medical switching had a positive impact on effectiveness, adherence or patients’ or physicians’ confidence in the quality-of-care provided. Non-office visit and prescriber-pharmacy contact were most frequently thought to increase due to non-medical switching. One-third of physicians felt office visits were very frequently/frequently increased, and ~ 1-in-5 respondents believed laboratory testing and additional medication use very frequently/frequently increased following a non-medical switch. About 1-in-10 physicians felt non-medical switching very frequently/frequently increased the utilization of emergency department or in-hospital care. Conclusion: This study suggests high-volume Medicare and/or Medicaid physician providers perceive multiple negative influences of non-medical switching on medication-related outcomes and health-care utilization.