@techreport{NBERw14886,
 title = "Can You Get What You Pay For?  Pay-For-Performance and the Quality of Healthcare Providers",
 author = "Kathleen J. Mullen and Richard G. Frank and Meredith B. Rosenthal",
 institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research",
 type = "Working Paper",
 series = "Working Paper Series",
 number = "14886",
 year = "2009",
 month = "April",
 URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w14886",
 abstract = {Despite the popularity of pay-for-performance (P4P) among health policymakers and private insurers as a tool for improving quality of care, there is little empirical basis for its effectiveness. We use data from published performance reports of physician medical groups contracting with a large network HMO to compare clinical quality before and after the implementation of P4P, relative to a control group. We consider the effect of P4P on both rewarded and unrewarded dimensions of quality. In the end, we fail to find evidence that a large P4P initiative either resulted in major improvement in quality or notable disruption in care.},
}