UnitedHealthcare to Grade Oncologists on Compliance with Care Guidelines
Appropriate use of clinical pathology laboratory tests to detect and treat cancer will be a scorecard factor
One primary goal of pay-for-performance programs is to reduce or eliminate the variability of care that physicians provide to their patients. Getting physicians to follow the recommended care protocols 100% of the time with 100% of their patients would contribute to improved outcomes, while reducing overall healthcare costs.
Pathologists and clinical laboratory professionals are well positioned to see this variability in care, since they regularly handle the laboratory test requests from client physicians. Over time, they can recognize the good and bad practice patterns of individual doctors, since it is reflected in both the lab test orders and the laboratory test results for that doctor’s patients.
