epileric
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It seems Healthcare is a common issue here so I thought this aspect of healthcare would be interesting. This article discusses whether individual bonuses for doctors are a productive idea. It focuses on Canada but I don't think this issue is very different across borders and the article quotes relevant studies from all over.
Do doctor bonuses actually improve health care?
You get what you pay for, right? It’s taken for granted that this holds true when it comes to using financial incentives to improve the quality of physician care. For example, if a GP gets a smoker to quit or a doctor at the hospital treats a heart-attack patient with the best medicine, they’ll be paid extra.
Intuitively, this makes sense: rewarding physicians for providing better care should, theoretically, boost quality and lead to improved health outcomes. That may be why “pay-for-performance” schemes have been touted by policymakers around the world. The Affordable Care Act in the U.S. advocates the use of pay-for-performance programs at hospitals. Britain and Australia have already ushered in these compensation models at the primary-care level. And here in Canada, health-care observers have long argued that rewarding and incenting quality among doctors is the way forward.
But what about the evidence?
Do doctor bonuses actually improve health care?
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