Giving Financial Incentives for Quality Care a Good Idea, Editorial Says

Offering financial incentives for quality care is "an idea worth trying," a Boston Globe editorial states. The Globe points to programs used by some employers and managed care organizations in Massachusetts and other states to pay bonuses to physicians who develop systems to monitor patients with chronic diseases, which could lower the patients' need for expensive hospital visits. The editorial says that such programs are "in line" with an Institute of Medicine report released last month that recommended that the federal government offer higher payments to physicians, hospitals, nursing homes and managed care organizations to encourage them to adopt "best practices." With patients and doctors "resistan[t]" to MCOs' cost-cutting measures, which "limit choice and access," the Globe says "new tools" are needed to keep health care costs from rising. The editorial concludes, "The experiments under way ... should show whether tying increases to higher quality will both benefit patients and ultimately lower costs" (Boston Globe, 11/14).