Quality

Pay-for-performance programs create consumer-driven measures of quality that could lead to the development of a framework for evaluating quality competition, according to a study by Columbia University researchers. However, the competition that P4P is intended to foster might not be well-suited to the health care industry, the study found.

The Columbia researchers found that introducing P4P programs might offer incentives to improve quality, but the programs will not address other problems in the U.S. health care system. Researchers recommend:

• Monitoring P4P programs for antitrust violations;
  
  
• Expanding government's role in setting policy for and designing P4P programs; and
  
  
• Ensuring that policymakers understand the theory behind P4P programs (Sage/Kalyan, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, June 2006).
  

• Learning To Love the State Action Doctrine (Brewbaker, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, June 2006).
  
  
• The Federal Trade Commission, Clinical Integration and the Organization of the Physician Practice (Casalino, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, June 2006).
  
  
• The Role of Tax Exemption in a Competitive Health Care Market (Colombo, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, June 2006).
  
  
• Why Don't Courts Treat Hospitals Like Tanks for Liquefied Gases? Some Reflections on Health Care Antitrust Enforcement (Gaynor, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, June 2006).
  
  
• Side Effects: A Dose of Competition and Access to Care (Glied, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, June 2006).
  
  
• Antitrust and Hospital Mergers: Does the Nonprofit Form Affect Competitive Substance? (Greaney, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, June 2006).
  
  
• Competition and Quality as Dynamic Processes in the Balkans of American Health Care (Hammer, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, June 2006).
  
  
• Contesting Anticompetitive Actions Taken in the Name of the State: State Action Immunity and Health Care Markets (Havighurst, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, June 2006).
  
  
• Strategies to Enhance Price and Quality Competition in Health Care: Lessons Learned from Tracking Local Markets (Lesser/Ginsburg, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, June 2006).
  
  
• A Dose of Reality: Assessing the Federal Trade Commission/Department of Justice Report in an Uninsured, Underserved and Vulnerable Population Context (Rosenbaum, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, June 2006).
  
  
• Beyond Competition: The Normative Implications of Consumer-Driven Health Plans (Rosenthal/Daniels, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, June 2006).
  
  
• The Role of Competition in Health Care: A Western European Perspective (Stoltzfus Jost et al., Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, June 2006).