Studies Suggest Pay-for-Performance Not Working

Tying financial rewards to cost-effective patient care management or reductions in adverse outcomes has not yielded the desired results, recent studies indicate. One recent study of a payment model at Fairview Health Services in Minnesota found that the system's incentive program's payment model provided "significant frustration" for physicians. In addition, a study of 30-day mortality rates among more than six million patients found that a hospital-based pay-for-performance program connected to Medicare payments did not decrease deaths.

• "Physician Quality Pay Not Paying Off" (Rice, Modern Healthcare, 5/30).