Cancer Prevention & Control, Provider-Oriented Screening Interventions: Provider Incentives

(2008 Archived Review)

Task Force Finding*

Provider incentives are rewards (direct or indirect) intended to motivate providers to perform cancer screening or make appropriate referral for their patients to receive these services. Rewards are often monetary, but can also include nonmonetary incentives (e.g., continuing medical education credit). Because some form of assessment is needed to determine whether providers receive rewards, an assessment component may be included in the intervention.

The Task Force found insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of provider incentives in increasing screening for breast, cervical, or colorectal cancers because too few studies qualified for review, and those that did showed inconsistent results.

*From the following publication:

Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Recommendations for client- and provider-directed interventions to increase breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening. [PDF - 73KB] Am J Prev Med 2008;35(1S):21-5.