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Are Pay-for-Performance Programs a Threat to Medical Professionalism?
TO THE EDITOR:
It was gratifying to read Snyder and Neubauer's position paper (1) on pay-for-performance and to see that I am not alone in my concerns over these initiatives. I would like to comment on a few issues.
First, health care providers are the only certain beneficiaries of pay-for-performance. Therefore, the implementation of pay-for-performance programs, without evidence of patient benefit, is inconsistent with the ethical imperative that “[c]linicians must ensure that … a medically appropriate level of care takes precedence over personal consideration” (1). In that regard, pay-for-performance seems inherently unethical.
Second, the …
