title: The impact of pay-for-performance on therapists' intentions to deliver high-quality treatment.
abstract: This article examined the extent to which assignment to a pay-for-performance (P4P) experimental condition impacted therapists' intentions to deliver high-quality treatment and the extent to which therapists' intentions could be explained by the theory of planned behavior. Data were collected from 95 therapists who agreed to participate in a P4P experiment related to their implementation of an evidence-based treatment (EBT) for adolescents with substance use problems. Relative to those in the control condition, therapists in the P4P condition reported significantly greater intentions to achieve monthly competence (B = 1.41, p < .001) and deliver a targeted threshold level of treatment to clients (B = 1.31, p < .001). In addition, therapists' intentions could be partially explained by the theory of planned behavior. Meta-analyses have found intentions to be one of the best predictors of behavior; thus, these findings provide initial support for using P4P approaches as a method of increasing the quality of substance use treatment.
authors.affiliation: Chestnut Health Systems, Normal, IL 61761, USA. brgarner@chestnut.org
authors.forename: Bryan R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Garner
authors.forename: Susan H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Godley
authors.forename: Christin M L
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Bair
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000191:economics; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000628:therapy*