| AHRQ Releases Consumer Financial
Incentives Guide For Employers
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
released a new guide to help employers, private health plans, the
federal government and state Medicaid agencies as they consider
consumer financial incentives as part of a strategy to improve the
quality of healthcare and get better value for what they spend on
services.
Consumer financial incentives are either a reward
offered to influence patients to behave in a particular way, or, less
often, a penalty for failing to do so. By using financial incentives,
healthcare purchasers hope to encourage patients to take actions that
either may improve the results of their treatment – such as
selecting a high-quality physician, reducing or eliminating high-risk
behaviors and using preventive services – or may reduce costs
by eliminating unnecessary emergency room visits and decreasing
preventable hospitalizations.
Using incentives to promote better value in
healthcare is one of the four cornerstones of the Department of Health
and Human Services’ Value-Driven Care Initiative, which has a
goal of providing consumers with the information necessary, and the
incentive, to choose healthcare providers based on value.
The decision guide was developed by a team of
researchers led by Dr. R. Adams Dudley, an associate professor with the
Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California,
San Francisco, in partnership with representatives of the purchaser and
consumer communities.
Dudley said, "A number of strategies to improve
quality – public report cards and provider incentives in
addition to consumer financial incentives – all start with
performance measurement. To the extent that measures are aligned across
these strategies, they can reinforce each other."
The decision guide consists of an evidence summary
organized around a series of 21 questions that purchasers need to
consider when implementing consumer financial incentives. They span
incentive design and implementation decisions.
The guide reviews the application of incentives to
five types of consumer decisions, including selecting a high-value
provider, selecting a high-value health plan, deciding among treatment
options, reducing health risks by seeking preventive care, and reducing
health risks by decreasing or eliminating high-risk behavior.
In addition to a summary of the evidence base, the
guide includes examples of consumer financial incentives currently
being offered, criteria for selecting performance measures, elements to
enable patients to participate in medical decision making and in
managing their chronic diseases, and characteristics that increase the
likelihood that a consumer will respond to financial incentives.
Address: Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality, 540 Gaither Rd., Suite 2000, Rockville, MD 20850; (301)
427-1364, www.ahrq.gov.
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