The effect of per-item fees on the behaviour of general practitioners.
The recent government White Paper 'Working for Patients' emphasised the use of financial incentives as a means of altering the behaviour of general practitioners (GPs) in the U.K. This paper examines the impact of financial incentives on GPs' behaviour with respect to maternity care and cervical cytology. Changes in per-item fees over the period 1966-89 appear to have had little effect on the numbers of treatments; rather service provision was related to patient demand and the availability of GPs. However, target payments for cervical cytology introduced in 1990 appear to have had a major impact.
Hughes
D
D
Department of Public Health, University of Aberdeen, UK.
Yule
B
B
D005251:Fees, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017059:Models, Econometric; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011247:Pregnancy; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012052:Reimbursement, Incentive; D013222:State Medicine / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006113:United Kingdom; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics