Programs that reward doctors and hospitals for hitting certain quality targets are being rolled out in Massachusetts and across the country. A major focus of the health care law signed by Governor Deval Patrick last week is that doctors should be paid for keeping patients healthy rather than for the volume of tests or treatments they order. Yet, several recent publications question whether pay-for-performance systems actually lead to better care for patients.
A review of seven studies of primary care programs that paid doctors extra for meeting certain targets, published by the Cochrane Collaboration in September, was inconclusive about the effect on quality of care. “Implementation should proceed with caution,” the authors wrote.
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"Hospitals and doctors can easily change their reporting practices to improve their quality scores" Duh, what else did they expect. If you are going to pay a provider based on a few indicators then the provider will target all efforts on those indicators ignoring equally important issues. If people like Patrick and the legislature bothered to actually spend time in a hospital they would see that this is what is happening. The truth is we cant truly measure healthcare quality. When insurers, politicians, and the media start talking about rewarding quality care they are really lying to the public.