Another Study that Shows Pay for Performance is Not Bringing About Better Patient Outcomes…Why Do They Keep Doing It? What’s CMS Going to Do?

The only company I hear talk about pay for performance all the time is United Healthcare and it certainly must help their profits.  Pay for performance has it’s place in sales but with steroid marketing of late and naïve consumers believing every report they hear, I think we are a little heavy on this incentive practice, especially in medicine.  What about all these incentives that need to be met?  I agree goals are good but when money get pinned on some of this, especially with the way Health IT is going how do you do this so it fair for all?


Pay For Performance Is Not All That It Has Cracked Up to Be-Time to Rethink As Money Is Not Creating Better Health Outcomes

Insurance companies jump in on this game too, make it tough for hospitals and that means they need to buy more analytics and UnitedHealthCare and Aetna are right at their door with subsidiaries to sell software to hospitals.  Is this not a little strange you think that the same companies that pay incentives have subsidiaries ready to jump in and get more money from the hospitals for more analytics?   Doctors also have reviews and sometimes they are told they have not met their admitting quotas.  Yes that has been said to MDs and heard it from a few doctors.  BD

Performance Reviews at the Hospital Means Pay for Performance for the Facility – Are the Quotas Being Met

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(Reuters) - A program to pay hospitals bonuses for hitting key performance measures, or dock them if they miss, failed to improve the health outcomes of patients, according to a large, long-term study.

The study could lead to a re-examination of financial incentives in healthcare, as policymakers seek ways to reward results rather than paying doctors and other providers for each service they provide, such as a diagnostic test.

Such an incentive program for hospitals is a key provision of the U.S. healthcare overhaul law that is being challenged this week before the Supreme Court.

The study looked at pay-for-performance incentives similar to those in the law and found no evidence that the program helped more patients live longer. It was published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/28/us-usa-healthcare-compensation-idUSBRE82R1F720120328?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=309303