NCT02467933

The Effect of Informative Letters on the Prescription and Receipt of Seroquel

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 5,055 (actual)
• Sponsor: Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Abusive prescribing exposes patients to unnecessary health risks and results in wasteful public expenditures. This study will evaluate an innovative approach to fighting abusive prescription: sending letters to suspected inappropriate prescribers warning them that they are outliers compared to their peers and have been flagged for review. The study will target high prescribers of Seroquel (Quetiapine), an atypical antipsychotic. Using claims data, the investigators will assess the effect of the letters on prescribing of Seroquel, receipt of Seroquel by patients, substitution behavior by prescribers and patients, and health outcomes of patients.

Conditions

• Economics
• Fraud
• Delivery of Health Care
• Health Expenditures
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (U.S.)

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Placebo letter	The placebo letter describes a new rule in Medicare that requires prescribers to enroll in Medicare
OTHER	Initial Informative letter	The intervention is a letter that describes the Seroquel prescribing activity of the individual in comparison to a peer group of similar prescribers. It highlights the fact that the prescriber's activity is highly unlike her peers.
OTHER	Followup Informative Letter	The followup informative letter is identical to the initial informative letter except it provides an update on more recent prescribing rather than a description of earlier prescribing.

Timeline

• Start date: 2015-04-01
• Primary completion: 2016-01-01
• Completion: 2017-04-01
• First posted: 2015-06-10
• Last updated: 2021-08-09