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Pay For Performance – in a nutshell

I’ve blogged previously about how unhelpful most Pay for Performance measures are for improving healthcare outcomes and “rewarding” physicians who provide evidence-based care.  But this sentence (spotted by Kevin, MD) summarizes my pages of opinions perfectly:

Judging medical quality from claims data is like judging a restaurant by looking at its grocery bill.

And if that didn’t sum it up perfectly, consider this:

The amount of “pay” for performance is so small that it is not incentive enough for physicians (or hospitals) to change their clinical practice behavior.  In effect, as JAMA says, “the carrot is not big enough.”This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.


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