Effective technology can fund quality improvement and pay-for-performance efforts

The healthcare industry appears poised on the brink of establishing a nationally recognized pay-for-performance standard that will reward those healthcare providers who demonstrate quality-of-care improvement, while penalizing those unable to deliver results that meet the established criteria. This pay-for-performance (P4P) initiative is largely a response to employers and consumers, who are increasingly inundated with data about what constitutes quality, as their healthcare costs increase. The resulting consumer and media outcry, coupled with reports of medical errors, turned the healthcare industry on its head, compelling regulators, watchdog organizations and healthcare associations to establish financial incentives to drive improvements in the quality of healthcare being delivered.