DO FEE DESCRIPTORS INFLUENCE TREATMENT CHOICES IN GENERAL-PRACTICE - A MULTILEVEL DISCRETE-CHOICE MODEL

Before 1990 Australian general practitioners (GPs) were remunerated ac cording to consultation length. This was assumed to encourage GPs to p rescribe more, counsel less and provide fewer treatments than were 'ap propriate'. In an attempt to change this behaviour, the remuneration s ystem was altered to reflect the content of consultations. This paper analyses, through the use of multilevel modelling, the effect of conte nt-based descriptors on the discrete choice behaviour of GPs while con trolling for patient, GP and practice characteristics. GPs who used co ntent-based descriptors were just as Likely to prescribe, counsel and treat compared to GPs who used time-based descriptors. (C) 1997 Elsevi er Science B.V. All rights reserved.