Professional Prestige and Physician Attitudes Regarding Criminal Justice Oversight of Prescribing Drug Practices

• In Event: 043 - Section on Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Regulating Drug Access

Abstract

Increasing government oversight on medical providers is decreasing professional autonomy and authority. Concern and action by government first evolved around healthcare cost increases and practice abuses. More recent actions attempt to address epidemic level prescription drug abuse. The current study surveyed licensed medical providers on their perceptions regarding practice monitoring, prescription drug abuse among their patients, and increased criminal justice oversight intending to curb epidemic drug abuse rates. The findings suggest with increased professional prestige, measured by medical specialization median level incomes, comes distinct perceptions regarding who should have access to patient data, thus reducing professional autonomy; higher professional prestige predicts how likely the provider is to acknowledge prescription drug abuse and support criminal justice oversight, and both are a negative relationship. The implications goes to the ever shifting “engines” of medicalization toward a more complex healthcare system in which providers are becoming less authoritative and autonomous.

Authors

• Neal Carnes, Georgia State University

• Eric R. Wright, Georgia State University

• Harold Kooreman, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis