A Michigan Medicine-led study found that people who experience social and financial challenges are less likely to receive certain anticoagulant prescriptions.

These medications, called DOACs, or direct oral anticoagulants, treat potentially deadly blood clots. Physicians were less likely to prescribe them if the patient had issues affording the drug or had no health insurance.

Clinical guidelines recommend that most patients with venous thromboembolism, or VTE, be prescribed DOACs. VTE causes clots to form in the veins and block blood flow. It includes deep vein thrombosis, which involves clots in the legs, and pulmonary embolism, the result of a clot blocking the artery in the lungs.

Physicians who participated in the survey noted that patients with housing insecurity were less likely to receive a DOAC, and a patient’s ability to natively speak English also affected medical management.