The New York Times 03/10/2016

Medicare Tries an Experiment to Fight Perverse Incentives

Margot Sanger-Katz discusses how doctors are incentivized to prescribe more expensive treatments, and how CMS is devising new payment strategies to combat the practice.

Suppose you're an eye doctor and you're treating a patient with macular degeneration, a disease that can cause blindness. You can prescribe a treatment that costs $2,000, or a similar one that costs $50. How would your decision be influenced if you could be paid $117 more to prescribe the more expensive drug?

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Research & Insights

We conduct non-partisan, independent research, and make our work accessible and informative to policymakers and the general audience alike. Browse our featured research or explore our work by article type.

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