Increasing Cancer Screening: Provider Incentives

(2008 Archived Review)

Incentives are rewards that motivate providers to perform screening or refer clients to cancer screening services. The rewards are usually monetary, but may also include other incentives such as continuing medical education credits.

Summary of Task Force Recommendations & Findings

The Community Preventive Services Task Force finds insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of provider incentives in increasing screening rates for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers (based on a small number of studies with inconsistent findings).

Task Force Finding

Results from the Systematic Review

Three studies qualified for the review, and they showed inconsistent results.

• Completed cervical cancer screening (within 6 months of increasing practitioner compensation for performing Pap tests): an 8 percentage point increase (p_0.05) (first study)

• Rates of recommending and/or ordering for mammography, Pap test, and FOBT:  changes of -1.5, -0.8, and 2.2 percentage points, respectively (second study)

• Recommended or ordered mammography in the intervention group exceeded that of the comparison group by only 1 percentage point, while mammography completion declined by 2 percentage points (third study)

Interventions assessed in the included studies were diverse in their approach and duration.

Economic efficiency is not reviewed for interventions for which there is insufficient evidence to determine effectiveness.

This result was based on a systematic review of all available studies, conducted on behalf of the Task Force by a team of specialists in systematic review methods, and in research, practice and policy related to cancer prevention.

Supporting Materials

• Evidence Gaps
• Summary evidence table [PDF - 32KB]
• Search Strategy

Publications

Sabatino SA, Habarta N, Baron RC. Interventions to increase recommendation and delivery of screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers by healthcare providers: systematic reviews of provider assessment and feedback and provider incentives. [PDF - 336KB] Am J Prev Med 2008;35(1S):67-74.

Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Recommendations for client- and provider-directed interventions to increase breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening. [PDF - 74KB] Am J Prev Med 2008;35(1S):21-5.

More Community Guide publications about Cancer Prevention and Control

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Sample Citation

The content of publications of the Guide to Community Preventive Services is in the public domain. Citation as to source, however, is appreciated. Sample citation: Guide to Community Preventive Services. Increasing cancer screening: provider incentives (2008 archived review). www.thecommunityguide.org/cancer/screening/provider-oriented/incentives_archive.html. Last updated: MM/DD/YYYY.

Review completed: July 2008