Pay-for-performance to PCPs may improve disease management

(HealthDay)—Pay-for-performance (P4P) measures have an overall positive effect on disease management, according to a review published online Dec. 12 in the Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine.

Yifei Lin, from the West China School of Medicine at Sichuan University, and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review to identify evidence of the impact of P4P on behavior of primary care physicians and patient outcomes.

Forty-four studies were included in the analysis. The researchers found that, overall, P4P had a positive effect on the management of disease. The positive effect varied by baseline medical quality and practice size. Most of the studies analyzed were retrospective and observational, and had high levels of heterogeneity.

"The implementation of P4P could bring about new problems regarding to the inequity of medical care, patient dissatisfaction, and growth of medical costs," the authors write.