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Can you get what you pay for? Pay‐for‐performance and the quality of healthcare providers
Author(s) -
Mullen Kathleen J.,
Frank Richard G.,
Rosenthal Meredith B.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the rand journal of economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.687
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1756-2171
pISSN - 0741-6261
DOI - 10.1111/j.1756-2171.2009.00090.x
Subject(s) - popularity , pay for performance , quality (philosophy) , control (management) , health care , business , quality management , actuarial science , operations management , marketing , computer science , economics , psychology , social psychology , philosophy , epistemology , service (business) , artificial intelligence , economic growth
Despite the popularity of pay‐for‐performance (P4P) among health policy makers and private insurers as a tool for improving quality of care, there is little empirical basis for its effectiveness. We use data from published performance reports of physician medical groups contracting with a large network HMO to compare clinical quality before and after the implementation of P4P, relative to a control group. We consider the effect of P4P on both rewarded and unrewarded dimensions of quality. In the end, we fail to find evidence that a large P4P initiative either resulted in major improvement in quality or notable disruption in care.