This post is for those of us who are bothered by all the time we waste in the doctor’s waiting room. Our annoyance is explained by the economic concept of opportunity cost. Opportunity cost refers to the other more productive and/or enjoyable things we could be doing with this lost time.
Kristin Ray and her colleagues attempted to measure the opportunity cost of a doctor visit. Their two studies (here and here) are summarized in this video.
Wouldn’t it be great if more researchers posted short videos like this one summarizing the results of their research?
Here are a couple of loose ends I’d like to clear up:
- Measuring opportunity cost is simpler for the employed people in the sample, since they were asked to report their hourly wages. For those not employed, demographic variables (age, sex, education, etc.) were used to estimate their hourly wages, which were then adjusted for the probability that someone in their demographic category would be employed. Bottom line: The researchers assume that the time of non-employed people is less valuable. (Some of us might want to contest that assumption.)
- If you’re puzzled by their estimate of $32 as the average cost of a doctor visit, note that this is the out-of-pocket cost. The average real cost was $279, but most of it was paid by insurance.
- The extra 25 minutes spent by minorities and unemployed people was not explained by length of time spent face-to-face with the doctor, and their travel time was only slightly longer. Most of it was extra time spent in the waiting room. This suggests that these folks go to doctor’s offices that are more crowded or that schedule their patients less efficiently.
I’m not optimistic about the potential to remedy this situation because, with the possible exception of those who cater to the wealthy, I don’t see that physicians have much incentive to make their services more user-friendly.
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