ArticleThe European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care2014
Lead me not into temptation: drug price regulation and dispensing physicians in Switzerland.
Article in The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Dispensing practices issue shorter prescription lengths compared with non-dispensing practices: a quasi-experimental cross-sectional study.BJGP open · 2026Article
- Dispensing physicians, asymmetric information supplier-induced demand: evidence from the Swiss Health Survey.International journal of health economics and management · 2016Article
- Prescription of potentially inappropriate medication in older persons in Switzerland: does the dispensing channel make a difference?Risk management and healthcare policy · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
While most countries separate drug prescription and dispensation to ensure independent drug choice, some allow this combination to increase pharmaceutical access in rural areas or to increase the utilization of pharmacist skills. A drawback of this approach is that dispensing physicians or prescribing pharmacists may be incentivized to increase their own profits through the prescription of cost-inefficient drug packages, leading to an increase in pharmaceutical spending. Switzerland constitutes an interesting example of where dispensing and non-dispensing physicians coexist, permitting a comparison of their prescribing behavior. The present study shows that drug margin optimization is possible under the current drug price regulation scheme in Switzerland. Using drug claims data, empirical findings indicate a 5-10% higher margin per dose for dispensing physicians compared to pharmacists. Cost per dose is 3-5% higher when dispensed by physicians instead of pharmacists.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.