Design of financial incentives and payment schemes in healthcare systems: A review

• Published in: Socio-economic planning sciences Vol. 72; p. 100901
• Main Authors: Fainman, Emily Zhu, Kucukyazici, Beste
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-12-2020; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Access; Financial incentives; Health care; Health care industry; Hospitals; Incentives; Medical personnel; Payment models; Payment systems; Physicians; Prospective models; Research methodology; Retrospective models; Financial incentives; Hospitals; Prospective models; Payment models; Physicians; Retrospective models
• ISSN: 0038-0121; 1873-6041
• DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2020.100901

In this paper, we review the existing studies on the design of financial incentives and payment mechanisms for healthcare service providers, which have been published in the literature of operations research & management science. We classify these studies in two ways: first, by the care provider focused on: physicians or hospitals; and next, by categorizing payment/incentive schemes as retrospective or prospective models under each care provider group. The problem setting, including the geographic background and research methodology, are briefly discussed for each paper, as are the findings with regard to accessibility, quality, efficiency, and the facilitation of integration and collaboration, if reported. We also provide a detailed discussion of potential research problems that would offer promising avenues for future study.
•We review the existing studies on the design of financial incentives and payment mechanisms published in OR & MS.•We classify the literature by the care provider focused on and payment/incentive schemes.•The problem setting, including the geographic background and the OR & MS research method, is discussed for each paper.