A new study from the University of Minnesota and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota says a bonus can help entice doctors to make referrals to a hot line.
Jump to full article: Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune, 2008-10-13
Author: MAURA LERNER, Star Tribune
Intro: How can you encourage more smokers to kick the habit?
Offer their doctors a cash bonus.
That's the conclusion of a new study from the University of Minnesota and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.
As an experiment, Blue Cross offered to pay medical clinics for referring smokers to a stop-smoking hot line. Clinics could receive up to $100 per referral.
In less than a year, those clinics referred nearly three times as many smokers to the hot line as those that didn't get the bonuses (11 percent vs. 4 percent), according to a study released Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Between 2005 and 2006, the insurance company paid out nearly $100,000 in bonuses for nearly 1,500 referrals.
No one knows how many of those smokers actually quit. Only about a fourth of those referred actually enrolled in stop-smoking programs, and the study didn't track their success rates.
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