A Randomized Trial of Behavioral Economic Approaches to Reduce Unnecessary Opioid Prescribing

Practice sites randomly assigned to have individual audit feedback will be sent information by email to each clinician at the site each month for the duration of the intervention period. The email will inform the clinician that the health system is doing monthly audits and provide them the number of patients in the last month for whom they prescribed 30 opioid pills per prescription or higher.

"Practice sites randomly assigned to have peer comparison feedback will be sent information by email to each clinician at the site each month for the duration of the intervention period. Data on the mean number of opioid pills per prescription and the proportion of visits with an opioid prescription will be delivered using a 3-month rolling average as follows: a) If clinician is above median: informed how their data compares to the median; b) If clinician is below median but above 10th percentile: informed how their data compares to the 10th percentile; c) If clinician is 10th percentile or below: informed of their data and commended for being a low prescriber."