Competition Among Clinics Increased Influenza Vaccine Rates Among Patients, Study Showed

A recent experiment found offering healthcare providers financial incentives and creating competition by informing clinics how their performance ranked relative to others were effective in increasing influenza (flu) vaccine rates among patients. The experiment was conducted by two researchers at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School who partnered with VaxCare, a technology company whose mission is to “transform the vaccine experience” by working with healthcare clinics to coordinate vaccination logistics.

In the experiment that was launched in August 2018, 145 healthcare clinics across nine different U.S. states were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The clinics in the first group received financial bonuses for year-over-year growth in the number of flu shots they administered, and they were paid additional money for all the shots they administered if they hit the growth target. Clinics in the second group were assessed on the same basis as the first but were just informed of their own ranking (the identities of the others in the ranking were not disclosed). The clinics in the third group, the control group, were neither offered a financial reward for increasing the number of vaccinated patients nor ranked relative to other clinics.

By December 2018, results of the experiment showed the total number of flu shots administered by the first two groups increased by about 6 percent more, on average, than the number administered by the control group. Interestingly, the number of flu shots administered by clinics that received performance rankings grew almost 10 percent, while the number of shots administered by clinics who received financial incentives increased by less than 1 percent.

According to the researchers, the experiment “provides more evidence of the potential of behavioral science to improve health outcomes and reduce costs.”