Health economics
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Financial incentives may increase performance on targeted activities and have unintended consequences for untargeted activities. An innovative pay-for-performance scheme was introduced for UK general practices in 2004. It incentivised particular quality indicators for targeted groups of patients. ⋯ We conclude that the incentives induced providers to improve targeted quality and make investments in quality that extended beyond the scheme. We estimate that the average provider was paid pound20 500 for recording 410 additional items of information on the risk factors targeted by the financial incentives. Allowance for the positive spillovers reduces the estimated average reward from pound50 to pound25 per additional record.