Journal of health care for the poor and underserved
-
J Health Care Poor Underserved · Feb 2012
Pay-for-performance programs to reduce racial/ethnic disparities: what might different designs achieve?
Pay-for-performance (P4P) programs may have unintended effects on racial/ethnic disparities. We used patient-level quality scores from the Hospital Quality Alliance and ranked hospitals by overall quality and by racial/ethnic disparities. ⋯ These results suggest that many hospitals treat Whites and minorities equitably. Nevertheless, in order to maximize both improvements in quality and reductions in national disparities, P4P programs should consider an approach that considers both overall quality and reductions in disparities when setting incentives.