Nation & World | Increased patient Medicare copays can backfire, study finds | Seattle Times Newspaper

By ALICIA CHANG Higher Medicare copays, sometimes just a few dollars more, led to fewer doctor visits and to more and longer hospital stays, a new study found. With health-care costs skyrocketing, many public and private insurers have required patients to pay more out-of-pocket when they seek care. The new study confirms what many policymakers had feared: Cost-shifting moves can backfire. "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," said Dr. Tim Carey, who heads the University of North Carolina's Sheps Center for Health Services Research. He had no role in the research in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. Continue Reading