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 .
Performance-based physician reimbursement and influenza immunization rates in the elderly. The Primary-Care Physicians of Monroe County.
OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of performance-based financial incentives on the  influenza immunization rate in primary care physicians ' offices . DESIGN R and omized controlled trial during the 1991 influenza immunization season . SETTING Rochester , New York , and surrounding Monroe County during the Medicare Influenza Vaccine Demonstration Project . PARTICIPANTS A total of 54 solo or group practice s that had participated in the 1990 Medicare Demonstration Project . INTERVENTIONS All physicians in participating practice s agreed to enumerate their ambulatory patients aged 65 or older who had been seen during the 1990 or 1991 calendar years , and to track the immunization rate on a weekly basis using a specially design ed poster from September 1991 to January 1 , 1992 . Additionally , physicians agreed to be r and omized , by practice group , to the control group or to the incentive group , which could receive an additional $ .80 per shot or $ 1.60 per shot if an immunization rate of 70 % or 85 % , respectively , was attained . MEASUREMENTS The main outcome measures are the 1991 immunization rate and the improvement in immunization rate from the 1990 to 1991 influenza seasons for each group practice . RESULTS For practice s in the incentive group , the mean immunization rate was 68.6 % ( SD 16.6 % ) compared with 62.7 % ( SD 18.0 % ) in the control group practice s ( P = .22 ) . The median practice -specific improvement in immunization rate was + 10.3 % in the incentive group compared with + 3.5 % in the control group ( P = .03 ) . CONCLUSIONS Despite high background immunization rates , this modest financial incentive was responsible for approximately 7 % increase in immunization rate among the ambulatory elderly
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 .