@article {635793,
	title = {Paying Patients to Switch: Impact of a Rewards Program on Choice of Providers, Prices, and Utilization},
	journal = {Health Aff (Millwood) },
	volume = {38},
	number = {3},
	year = {2019},
	pages = {440-447},
	abstract = {\&nbsp;Employers and insurers are experimenting with benefit strategies that encourage\&nbsp;patients\&nbsp;to\&nbsp;switch\&nbsp;to lower-price\&nbsp;providers. One increasingly popular strategy is to financially reward\&nbsp;patients\&nbsp;who receive care from such\&nbsp;providers. We evaluated the\&nbsp;impact\&nbsp;of a\&nbsp;rewards\&nbsp;programimplemented in 2017 by twenty-nine employers with 269,875 eligible employees and dependents. For 131 elective services,\&nbsp;patients\&nbsp;who received care from a designated lower-price provider received a check ranging from $25 to $500, depending on the provider{\textquoteright}s price and service. In the first twelve months of the\&nbsp;program\&nbsp;we found a 2.1\&nbsp;percent reduction in\&nbsp;prices\&nbsp;paid for services targeted by the\&nbsp;rewardsprogram. The reductions in price resulted in savings of $2.3\&nbsp;million, or roughly $8 per person, per year. These effects were primarily seen in magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasounds, with no observed price reduction among surgical procedures.},
	author = {Whaley C and Sood S and Chernew M and Vu L and Metcalfe L and Mehrotra A}
}
