Clinical trial NCT03715907: Financial Incentives for Care Gaps
Official title: Financial Incentives for Care Gaps: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Delivery of Health Care
Keywords: Professional Practice Gaps
Lead sponsor: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2018-10-23
Enrollment: 8042
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 21
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: FACTORIAL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: This project seeks to understand how individuals respond to financial incentive programs for wellness care. In a randomized controlled trial among customers with care gaps, the investigators will experimentally compare the impacts of incentives for gap closure (gift cards), information on existing gaps (mailers), and no intervention. The research objectives are to assess how responsive individuals are to incentives for, and to information about, existing care gaps; and to assess spillovers from incentives onto other care. In addition, impacts on downstream utilization will be studied, which may be impacted if financial incentives are effective at increasing wellness visits.

Detailed description: Setting and sample:

The study will be conducted among individuals enrolled in an insurance plan offered by an insurance company in the state of Nebraska.

The sample will include a subset of individuals eligible for a program designed to improve delivery of care by incentivizing individuals and their dependents to fill "care gaps" - gaps in recommended care.

Interventions:

The design will entail two overarching interventions for each incentivized care gap: Incentives, and Information Only. In addition, there will be a control that receives neither.

* Incentives. Individuals receiving the Incentives intervention for a given care gap will receive a mailer informing them of that gap, and that they are eligible for a gift card if they close that care gap.
* Information Only. Individuals receiving the Information Only intervention for a given care gap will receive a mailer informing them of that gap, but without information on the incentives available.
* Control. Individuals receiving the Control intervention for a given care gap will not receive a mailer.

All individuals will be made whole following the intervention period, regardless of treatment status; i.e. members will be compensated for closing incentivized care gaps regardless of whether they were informed of their eligibility to do so.

The specific Incentivized Care Gaps include: W34, LSC, IMA, CDC Eye Exam and/or CDC Hba1c Screening, CCS, and AWC.

Randomization:

A separate letter is sent for each care gap, so that individuals may receive more than one letter. The investigators will randomize which letters are sent.

The process will be as follows: every individual with a care gap in the sample (a care-gap, beneficiary pair) will be randomly assigned a study status: financial incentive, information only, or no letter. When it comes time to send mailers for each care gap, mailers will be sent according to the intersection of eligibility and care gap-specific treatment assignment. E.g. if at mailing time a participant is eligible for only cervical cancer screening (CCS), that participant will receive the CCS intervention (Control, Information Only, or Incentives) as pre-assigned. If the participant is also eligible for an adolescent well-visit (AWC) incentive based on her dependent's age and visit status, the participant will also receive the AWC intervention as pre-assigned; this intervention may be the same or different from her CCS intervention.

Analysis:

The investigators will compare the number and rate of care-gap closure at 6 and 18 months following the initial mailing. The investigators will also conduct heterogeneity analysis according to baseline characteristics of the population.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Is a partner organization member in the region of study
* Has a care gap in one of the six target areas

Exclusion Criteria:

* Participating in another select high-intensity wellness intervention provided by the partner organization

Primary outcomes:
measure: Proportion of care gaps closed
timeFrame: 6 months, from the date of randomization until end-of-year (i.e., December 31, 2018)
measure: Proportion of care gaps closed
timeFrame: 18 months, from the date of randomization until December 31, 2019
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Health care expenditure during study - Total claims
timeFrame: 6 months, from the date of randomization until end-of-year
measure: Health care expenditure following study - Total claims
timeFrame: 12 months, from December 31 2018 - December 31 2019
measure: Outpatient visits during study
timeFrame: 6 months, from the date of randomization until end-of-year
measure: Outpatient visits following study
timeFrame: 12 months, from December 31 2018 - December 31 2019
measure: Inpatient visits during study
timeFrame: 6 months, from the date of randomization until end-of-year
measure: Inpatient visits following study
timeFrame: 12 months, from December 31 2018 - December 31 2019
measure: Prescriptions during study
timeFrame: 6 months, from the date of randomization until end-of-year
measure: Prescriptions following study
timeFrame: 12 months, from December 31 2018 - December 31 2019
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Cambridge
country: United States
facility: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
state: Massachusetts
Study officials:
References: