Incentives for Multimodal Treatment-first Step Towards Pay for Quality (P4Q) for Chronic Care: Health Services Research from Germany

Pay for Quality (P4Q) is being discussed as an incentive to ensure high quality standards despite cost pressure in healthcare. However, P4Q can also have adverse effects, and the evidence for its effectiveness is limited, especially regarding chronic conditions and multimorbidity. For the treatment of the latter, specific evaluation criteria were defined. Whether these are feasible in the context of costs and remunerations is analyzed in this study using the German DRG system as an example. The aim is to show conditions under which P4Q can be effective.

Costs and remuneration for hospitals were compared for an exemplary geriatric indication, with and without complex treatment. Doing so, cost weights were shown to be more than triple for the latter. The results are applicable to health care systems with P4Q or similar approaches.

Introducing complex treatments poses higher and costly demands regarding structure, processes, and interdisciplinary cooperation in organizations. Additional average costs can be calculated by comparison to regular treatment. Covering the extra costs creates the necessary conditions for P4Q and makes the implementation of complex treatments more likely. As high standards have to be guaranteed for complex treatments and patient satisfaction rises when these are introduced, quality improvements can be assumed. This study can inform Health policy (incentive models) medical societies, give impulses for quality management, and healthcare research (patient-oriented health, e.g. consumer-driven health care, shared decision-making). Future studies should report patient-related outcomes and investigate further diagnoses.