News Release
Pay-For-Performance for Medical Groups Stimulates Changes in Practice
Mar 11, 2009
A Candid Assessment from the Front Lines
Published In: Health Affairs, v. 28, no. 2, Mar./Apr. 2009, p. 517-525
Posted on RAND.org on March 15, 2009
Pay-for-performance (P4P) has been widely adopted, but it remains unclear how providers are responding and whether results are meeting expectations. Physician organizations involved in the California Integrated Healthcare Association's (IHA) P4P program reported having increased physician-level performance feedback and accountability, speeded up information technology adoption, and sharpened their organizational focus and support for improvement in response to P4P; however, after three years of investment, these changes had not translated into breakthrough quality improvements. Continued monitoring is required to determine whether early investments made by physician organizations provide a basis for greater improvements in the future.
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