Health service gatekeepers

Working paper

Incentive contracts for gatekeepers who control patient access to specialist medical services provide too weak incentives to investigate cost further when expected cost of treatment is greater than benefit. Making gatekeepers residual claimants with a fixed fee from which treatment costs must be met (as with full insurers who are themselves gatekeepers) provides too strong incentives when expected cost is less than benefit. Giving patients the choice between a gatekeeper with an incentive con...

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Authors: Malcomson, J

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: University of Oxford Publisher's website
• Series: Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series
• Publication date: 2003-09-01
• Paper number: 169
• Keywords: gatekeepers; medical insurance; general practitioners; fundholding; incentive contracts; patient refererrals