Department of Health Sciences Reports Findings in Health Services (Does the implementation of an incentive scheme increase adherence to diabetes guidelines? A retrospective cohort study of managed care enrollees): Health and Medicine – Health Services

2023 JUL 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Education Daily Report -- New research on Health and Medicine - Health Services is the subject of a report. According to news reporting from Zurich, Switzerland, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “A novel incentive scheme based on a joint agreement of a large Swiss health insurance with 56 physician networks was implemented in 2018. This study evaluated the effect of its implementation on adherence to evidence-based guidelines among patients with diabetes in managed care models.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the Department of Health Sciences, “We performed a retrospective cohort study, using health care claims data from patients with diabetes enrolled in a managed care plan (2016-2019). Guideline adherence was assessed by four evidence-based performance measures and four hierarchically constructed adherence levels. Generalized multilevel models were used to examine the effect of the incentive scheme on guideline adherence. A total of 6’273 patients with diabetes were included in this study. The raw descriptive statistics showed minor improvements in guideline adherence after the implementation. After adjusting for underlying patient characteristics and potential differences between physician networks, the likelihood of receiving a test was moderately but consistently higher after the implementation of the incentive scheme for most performance measures, ranging from 18% (albuminuria: OR, 1.18; 95%-CI, 1.05-1.33) to 58% (HDL cholesterol: OR, 1.58; 95%-CI, 1.40-1.78). Full adherence was more likely after implementation of the incentive scheme (OR, 1.37; 95%-CI, 1.20-1.55), whereas level 1 significantly decreased (OR, 0.74; 95%-CI, 0.65 - 0.85). The proportions of the other adherence levels were stable.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Incentive schemes including transparency of the achieved performance may be able to improve guideline adherence in patients with diabetes and are promising to increase quality of care in this patient population.”

For more information on this research see: Does the implementation of an incentive scheme increase adherence to diabetes guidelines? A retrospective cohort study of managed care enrollees. BMC Health Services Research, 2023;23(1):707. BMC Health Services Research can be contacted at: Bmc, Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9XW, England. (BioMed Central - http://www.biomedcentral.com/; BMC Health Services Research - http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmchealthservres/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Renato Farcher, Dept. of Health Sciences, Helsana Group, P.O. Box, Zurich, Switzerland. Additional authors for this research include Sereina M. Graber, Nicole Thuring, Eva Blozik and Carola A. Huber.

Publisher contact information for the journal BMC Health Services Research is: Bmc, Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9XW, England.

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