Who is the intervention targeting?

Racial and ethnic minority patients with diabetes

What intervention is being evaluated?

Operating funds are used to reward primary care providers for providing quality care for all plan members with diabetes.  The total potential bonus amount for achieving all measures is $300 per patient.

Where is this intervention taking place?

Primary care practices that are part of a Medicaid-focused, not-for-profit managed care plan serving predominantly racial and ethnic minority patients

Partnering Organizations
Hudson Health Plan (Lead Organization)
Harvard School of Public Health

Why might this approach work?

The incentive program rewards patient-centered care rather than population-wide results by basing the bonus on both absolute and relative patient-level clinical measures.

How will this intervention be evaluated?

The evaluation will address concerns that pay-for-performance programs may exacerbate disparities by evaluating whether the program has improved both process and intermediate outcome measures of diabetes quality of care among racial and ethnic minority enrollees.  Primary care providers will be surveyed to learn their views on the design of the program and their satisfaction with it.  The evaluation will also quantify barriers to adoption of such a program and evaluate the impact of a pay-for-performance program on utilization and total health plan spending for racial and ethnic minority enrollees with diabetes.

Principal Investigators:

Janet Sullivan, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Hudson Health Plan

Meredith Rosenthal, PhD
Associate Professor, Harvard School of Public Health

For More Information

Please Contact:
Janet Sullivan
jsullivan@hudsonhealthplan.org