Health care professionals have a responsibility to educate patients about public screening programs and ensure that subsequent follow-up is done after the screening is completed.
Appropriate use of the pay-for-performance system may improve quality of care by counteracting physician incentives to overtreat in fee-for-service situations or undertreat in capitation plans.
Despite their added benefit in assisting physicians with clinical decision making, statistical prediction rules have not been widely used since their introduction in 1954.
To be a useful tool for assessing quality of physician care, pay-for-performance must be designed to include process measures and to not penalize physicians for treating patients with difficult-to-manage conditions.