Saturday, October 18, 2008

Incentives in (British) medicine, continued

Doctors paid thousands not to send patients to hospital for treatment

The Telegraph reports "Family doctors are being paid thousands of pounds not to send their patients to hospital for specialist treatment, sparking fears over standards of care.
...Dozens of incentive schemes have been uncovered which allow GPs to profit by slashing the number of patients they refer for hospital care.
Under one scheme, GPs stand to gain £59 for every patient not referred to hospital, if they cut an average referral rate by between two and eight per cent. "

Recall my earlier post on a different but related issue.

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