In reply
We thank Drs Mishra and Satpathy for their comments. Studies of different health systems on several continents now show that physicians' knowledge of medication costs is often inadequate. Unfortunately, very little, if any, time in medical school or residency programs in the United States is spent educating physicians-in-training about the basic anatomy and physiology of our health care system. Even less time in the curriculum is allocated to the most practical, consumer-level information about government and private health plans, benefits policies, and costs of drugs and other common expenditures.