Patients views on pay for their personal self control
To reduce health costs as well as improve health, many large employers and insurers are introducing pay for the performance of patients (P4P4P).
Led by Judith A Long, researchers in Pennsylvania set out to assess the view of patients on P4P4P by surveying a cross-section of patients in waiting rooms at two university-based primary care clinics.
Asked for their opinions about paying smokers to quit smoking, obese people to lose weight, hypertension patients to control their blood pressure, or diabetics to control their blood sugar, 36–42% of respondents thought it a good/excellent idea. However, 41–44% of participants thought paying them is a bad or very bad idea.
Smokers and obese patients were more in favour of P4P4P to stop smoking and lose weight, respectively, than the non-smoking and non-obese respondents.
The researchers conclude that acceptance by the public of paying patients for performance is equivocal and add that establishing the value of P4P4P programme may help such a programme to gain wider acceptance.
The study was published online in July for registered users of the Journal of General Medicine (www.springer.com/
medicine/internal/journal/11606 [doi:10.1007/s11606-008-0739-1])
01.09.2008
