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Effects of Paying Physicians Based on their Relative Performance for Quality

  • Health Policy
  • Published:
Journal of General Internal Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Studies examining the effectiveness of pay-for-performance programs to improve quality of care primarily have been confined to bonus-type arrangements that reward providers for performance above a predetermined threshold. No studies to date have evaluated programs placing providers at financial risk for performance relative to other participants in the program.

Objective

The objective of the study is to evaluate the impact of an incentive program conferring limited financial risk to primary care physicians.

Participants

There were 334 participating primary care physicians in Rochester, New York.

Design

The design of the study is a retrospective cohort study using pre/post analysis.

Measurements

The measurements adhere to 4 diabetes performance measures between 1999 and 2004.

Results

While absolute performance levels increased across all measures immediately following implementation, there was no difference between the post- and pre-intervention trends indicating that the overall increase in performance was largely a result of secular trends. However, there was evidence of a modest 1-time improvement in physician adherence for eye examination that appeared attributable to the incentive program. For this measure, physicians improved their adherence rate on average by 7 percentage points in the year after implementation of the program.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates a modest effect in improving provider adherence to quality standards for a single measure of diabetes care during the early phase of a pay-for-performance program that placed physicians under limited financial risk. Further research is needed to determine the most effective incentive structures for achieving substantial gains in quality of care.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the contribution by Greg Partridge in facilitating access to the data we analyzed in our study. We thank Matthew Guldin for his research assistance. This study was supported by grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Conflict of Interests Statement

None Disclosed.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Policy and Management, Boston University School of Public Health, Talbot Building, 715 Albany Street, Boston, MA, 02118-2526, USA

    Gary J. Young JD, PhD, Mark Meterko PhD, Bert White DMin, MBA, Karen M. Sautter MPH, Barbara G. Bokhour PhD, Dan Berlowitz MD, MPH & James F. Burgess Jr. PhD

  2. Department of Veterans Affairs, Center for Organization, Leadership and Management Research, Boston, MA, USA

    Gary J. Young JD, PhD, Mark Meterko PhD, Errol Baker PhD & James F. Burgess Jr. PhD

  3. Rochester Individual Practice Association, Rochester, NY, USA

    Howard Beckman MD & Robert Greene MD

  4. Excellus Health Plans, Rochester, NY, USA

    Kathy Curtin MBA, RN

  5. MedVantage, Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA

    Kathy Curtin MBA, RN

  6. Center for Health Quality, Outcomes and Economic Research, Department of Veterans Affairs, Bedford, MA, USA

    Barbara G. Bokhour PhD & Dan Berlowitz MD, MPH

Authors
  1. Gary J. Young JD, PhD
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  2. Mark Meterko PhD
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  3. Howard Beckman MD
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  4. Errol Baker PhD
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  5. Bert White DMin, MBA
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  6. Karen M. Sautter MPH
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  7. Robert Greene MD
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  8. Kathy Curtin MBA, RN
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  9. Barbara G. Bokhour PhD
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  10. Dan Berlowitz MD, MPH
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  11. James F. Burgess Jr. PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gary J. Young JD, PhD.

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Young, G.J., Meterko, M., Beckman, H. et al. Effects of Paying Physicians Based on their Relative Performance for Quality. J GEN INTERN MED 22, 872–876 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-007-0185-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-007-0185-5

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