Report
Can Incentives for Healthy Behavior Improve Health and Hold Down Medicaid Costs?
Key Findings:
- A growing number of states are providing financial incentives to encourage Medicaid beneficiaries to obtain preventive services and combat problems like smoking and obesity. Few rigorous studies have been conducted, however, to see whether incentives achieve these goals.
- Economic rewards, when combined with other interventions, may be effective in increasing preventive care. No studies indicate that incentives are effective against smoking or obesity, however, both of which are complex problems requiring more substantial assistance.
- West Virginia’s penalty-based incentive approach, which restricts health benefits for beneficiaries who do not follow a particular behavior plan, is unlikely to produce health improvements. In fact, it risks harming people who do not comply with the plan because of mental health or other problems, by denying them needed health care services.