Pay-For-Performance Incentives Improve Care at Small Clinics with EHR Systems

Among small clinics with electronic health record (EHR) systems, a pay-for-performance incentive program resulted in modest improvements in cardiovascular care processes and outcomes when compared with usual care, concludes a study published in the September 11, 2013, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, which evaluated 84 small primary care clinics in New York City from April 2009 through March 2010, found that although all of the participating clinics had similar baseline characteristics, those that received the pay-for-performance intervention had greater adjusted absolute improvement in rates of appropriate antithrombotic prescription (12.0% versus 6.1%), blood pressure control (no comorbidities: 9.7% versus 4.3%; with diabetes mellitus: 9.0% versus 1.2%; with diabetes mellitus or ischemic vascular disease: 9.5% versus 1.7%), and smoking cessation interventions (12.4% versus 7.7%).