Physician Payment: Forget Carrots And Sticks, It’s Motivation

Today the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute, Inc. issued a report, developed with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), questioning conventional wisdom about how to improve the quality and affordability of U.S. health care.

The report, entitled “Improving Incentives to Free Motivation,” rejects the premise of current payment reform discussions, which assumes that health care costs will drop and quality will improve if policymakers and payers simply find the right mix of rewards (“carrots”) and punishments (“sticks”).

The Issue Brief also analyzed cost and quality variability data for over 20 health conditions, identifying those (such as diabetes and coronary heart disease) most ripe for incentive experimentation and reform.

Additional details can be found in today's news release. Blog posts on the topic were also published today in  the Health Affairs Blog and The Health Care Blog.