Financial incentives may be effective in changing healthcare professional practice .
We found no evidence from review s that examined the effect of financial incentives on patient outcomes
BACKGROUND There is considerable interest in the effectiveness of financial incentives in the delivery of health care .
Incentives may be used in an attempt to increase the use of evidence -based treatments among healthcare professionals or to stimulate health professionals to change their clinical behaviour with respect to preventive , diagnostic and treatment decisions , or both .
Financial incentives are an extrinsic source of motivation and exist when an individual can expect a monetary transfer which is made conditional on acting in a particular way .
Since there are numerous review s performed within the healthcare area describing the effects of various types of financial incentives , it is important to summarise the effectiveness of these in an overview to discern which are most effective in changing health professionals ' behaviour and patient outcomes .
OBJECTIVES To conduct an overview of systematic review s that evaluates the impact of financial incentives on healthcare professional behaviour and patient outcomes .
Frequency and characteristics of cognitive services provided in response to a financial incentive.
OBJECTIVE To determine the effects of a financial incentive on the number and types of  cognitive services ( CS )  provided by community pharmacies to Medicaid recipients in the State of Washington . DESIGN Prospect i ve r and omized trial . CS were reported using a problem-intervention- result coding system over a 20-month period . SETTING AND SUBJECTS Pharmacists practicing in 110 study ( financial incentive ) and 90 control community pharmacies . RESULTS Study pharmacists documented an average of 1.59 CS interventions per 100 prescriptions over a 20-month period , significantly more than controls , who documented an average of 0.67 interventions ( P < .05 ) per 100 prescriptions . One-half ( 48.4 % ) of all CS were for patient-related problems , 32.6 % were for drug-related problems , 17.6 % were for prescription-related problems , and 1.4 % were for other problems that did not involve drug therapy . A change in drug therapy occurred as a result of 28 % of all CS documented in this demonstration . Changes were rarely ( 2.4 % ) due to generic or therapeutic substitution and almost always ( 90 % ) followed communication with the prescriber . The average self-reported time to perform CS was 7.5 minutes ; 75 % of interventions were < or = 6 minutes . Considerable differences existed between study and control groups in the types of problems identified , intervention activities performed , and results of interventions . CONCLUSION A financial incentive was associated with significantly more , and different types of , CS performed by pharmacists
Financial incentives may be effective in changing healthcare professional practice .
We found no evidence from review s that examined the effect of financial incentives on patient outcomes
BACKGROUND There is considerable interest in the effectiveness of financial incentives in the delivery of health care .
Incentives may be used in an attempt to increase the use of evidence -based treatments among healthcare professionals or to stimulate health professionals to change their clinical behaviour with respect to preventive , diagnostic and treatment decisions , or both .
Financial incentives are an extrinsic source of motivation and exist when an individual can expect a monetary transfer which is made conditional on acting in a particular way .
Since there are numerous review s performed within the healthcare area describing the effects of various types of financial incentives , it is important to summarise the effectiveness of these in an overview to discern which are most effective in changing health professionals ' behaviour and patient outcomes .
OBJECTIVES To conduct an overview of systematic review s that evaluates the impact of financial incentives on healthcare professional behaviour and patient outcomes .