Designing Multi-Level Incentives for Health Care Systems

该奖项的目的是分析和改善医疗保健中的多层次激励机制，使患者、医生、医院和付款人受益。一种新的建模方法的基础上多尺度决策理论将开发，可以考虑利益相关者之间的多层次的相互依赖关系，支持他们的决策过程，并使激励计划的重新设计。该方法集成了一个新的图形化建模技术与模块化的数学制定策略，计算最优决策下的不确定性，并确定有效的激励结构。在一个案例研究中，该模型将被应用于寻找机制，可以减少过度使用的计算机断层扫描（CT）scannes.If成功的，这项研究的结果将导致在医疗保健的激励设计的改进。更好地调整激励措施是降低成本同时提高美国医疗保健系统质量的关键机制之一。对社会和经济的好处将是医疗保健价值的提高，即，以更低的成本获得更好的健康成果。多尺度决策理论的基础研究和进展将为复杂的社会技术系统带来新的建模和求解方法。这项工作还将有助于教育学生和卫生保健专业人员如何在组织系统设计中使用激励措施。与德国的国际合作将使学生能够从他们的国家和文化的角度交流改善医疗保健系统的想法。

The objective of this award is to analyze and improve multi-level incentive mechanisms in health care to benefit patients, physicians, hospitals and payers. A novel modeling approach based on multiscale decision theory will be developed that can account for the multi-level interdependencies between stakeholders, supports their decision processes and enables the re-design of incentive programs. The approach integrates a new graphical modeling technique with a modular mathematical formulation strategy to compute optimal decisions under uncertainty and to identify effective incentive structures. In a case study, the model will be applied to find mechanisms that can reduce the overuse of computed tomography (CT) scans.If successful, the results of this research will lead to improvements in the design of incentives in health care. Better alignment of incentives is one of the key mechanisms to lower costs while improving quality for the U.S. health care system. The benefits to society and economy will be an improvement in health care value, i.e., better health outcomes at lower costs. Fundamental research and advances in multiscale decision theory will lead to novel modeling and solution methods for complex socio-technical systems. The work will also contribute to the education of students and health care professionals on how to use incentives in organizational system design. An international collaboration with Germany will allow students to exchange ideas on health care system improvements from the perspective of their country and culture.