Do doctors respond to financial incentives? UK family doctors and the GP fundholder scheme

B. Croxson, C. Propper, A. Perkins

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

81 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The 1991 reforms to the UK NHS created a group of buyers of hospital care from amongst primary care physicians. The implementation of the reforms was such that these buyers had incentives to increase their use of hospital services prior to entering the scheme in order to inflate their budgets. It has been argued that non-financial motives would limit such behaviour. The paper shows that these health care providers did respond to the financial incentives offered by the scheme, increasing hospital-based activity prior to entry, and so inflating their budgets upwards for the duration of the fundholding scheme.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)375-398
Number of pages24
JournalJournal of Public Economics
Volume79
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2001
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Analysis of health care markets (I110)
  • Health care reform
  • Physicians and financial incentives
  • Public sector labour markets (J450)

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