Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/263657 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15441
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We examine how physician decisions are impacted by difficult cases—encounters with newly diagnosed cancer patients. Using detailed administrative data, we compare primary care physicians' decisions in visits that occurred before and after difficult cases and matched comparison cases by the same physicians on other dates. Immediately following a difficult case, physicians increase referrals for common tests, including diagnostic tests unrelated to cancer. The effect lasts only for about an hour and is not driven by patient selection or schedule disruption. The results highlight difficult encounters as a source of variability in physician practice.
Subjects: 
primary care
practice variation
intra-rater reliability
JEL: 
I1
D91
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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