A few dollars more meant lesser doctors visits and extended stays at hospitals. Higher medicare copays

Patients are required to shell out more for seeking care following health care costs skyrocketing. Fears of policymakers have come true about cost shifting now backfiring.

Dr Tim Carey, who heads the University of North Carolina's Sheps Center for Health Services Research, said, "Patients may defer needed care and may wind up with a serious health event that might put them in the hospital. That's not good for the patients, not good for society, not good for anybody."

For coming to a clear conclusion a study was conducted that enrolled 900,000 seniors in 36 Medicare managed-care plans from 2001 to 2006. During the study half of the plans raised copays for visits to doctors and specialists. Medical use patterns in those plans was compared by the researchers with use in similar Medicare managed-care plans that maintained the same copays. Copays for prescription drugs did not change in any plan.

The findings revealed that copay for a doctor visit in plans that augmented patient cost-sharing doubled, from $7.38 to $14.38. A patient had to shell out $12.66 to $22.05 to see a specialist. In plans that were not changed the copay was $8.33 to see a doctor and $11.38 to see a specialist.

“The results suggest that raising copays to contain costs is counterproductive. Not only may it lead to higher health care spending, but patients also suffer,” said Dr Amal Trivedi, assistant professor of community health at Brown University, who led the study.