INCENTIVE BIAS? In Medicine and with Physicians?

Posted on December 12, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

DEFINITION

By Staff Reporters

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Incentives: It is broadly accepted that incenting someone to do something is effective, whether it be paying office staff a commissions to sell more healthcare products, or giving bonuses to office employees if they work efficiently to see more HMO patients.  Some experts even suggest there are five specific components1 that should be built into an overall physician incentive program:

  • Appropriate financial incentives.
  • Managed-care efficiency incentives.
  • Group citizenship.
  • Patient satisfaction.
  • Group profitability.

What is not well understood is that the incentives cause a sub-conscious distortion of decision-making ability in the incented person.  This distortion causes the affected person – whether it is yourself or someone else – to truly believe in a certain decision, even if it is the wrong choice when viewed objectively.  Service professionals, including financial advisors and lawyers, are affected by this bias, and it causes them to honestly offer recommendations that may be inappropriate, and that they would recognize as being inappropriate if they did not have this bias. 

According to colleague Dan Ariely PhD, the existence of this bias makes it important for each one of us to examine our incentive biases and take extra care when advising physician clients, or to make sure we are appropriately considering non-incented alternatives.

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PHYSICIAN CREDIT: Ratings, Scoring, Errors and Repair Services

Posted on December 12, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

ALMOST ALL ABOUT CREDIT

By Staff Reporters

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Credit Rating and Scoring

The category in which a credit agency classifies you is based upon payment history.  Recently, credit reporting agencies have shifted away from ratings to a system known as credit scoring. Your score is determined by proprietary formulas that are based on your credit history, the higher the better. The practical benefits of this scoring system are numerous.

First, medical professionals do not need to be experts at deciphering credit reports since the same scoring system is used by many different companies.

Correcting Credit Report Errors

A credit bureau is not the place to get an item to be fixed on your credit report. Rather, you must take it up directly with the credit issuer. In any case, a late payment noted on a credit report by a durable medical equipment vendor, for example, has to be addressed directly with that merchant. The DME merchant then has 30 days to acknowledge your complaint and respond to you. In the meantime, you do not have to pay for the disputed items.  Most credit errors cannot be reported or kept on your credit report for more than seven years.

For legitimate late payments you should contact the credit grantor and negotiate to take one of the following steps. Be tenacious, and either remove the late payment or write a letter explaining that the problem has been resolved and you now are a good credit risk again. This letter is a powerful tool and should be saved with other permanent financial records. The industry term for it is a letter of correction.

Credit Repair Services

Credit repair services are oversold and their claims tend to be exaggerated. They do not have an inside track to the consumer reporting agencies.  Good credit repair services are experienced in communicating with creditors and can help with legitimate repairs.  They cannot restore your credit rating or your good name. 

However, realize that with some time and effort you can accomplish the same results yourself.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/0826102549

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MYOPIA: Prime Financial Earning Years

Posted on December 12, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

COGNITIVE BIAS

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By Staff Reporters

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Myopia makes it hard for us to imagine what our lives might be like in the future.

For example, because we are young, healthy, and in our prime earning years now, it may be hard for us to picture what life will be like when our health depletes and we know longer have the earnings necessary to support our standard of living.

According to colleague Dan Ariely PhD, this short sighted cognitivebias makes it hard to save adequately when we are young, when saving does the most good.

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DAILY UPDATE: Bitcoin and Big Technology Stocks Soar as DJIA Slips

Posted on December 12, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST – TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

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Essays, Opinions and Curated News in Health Economics, Investing, Business, Management and Financial Planning for Physician Entrepreneurs and their Savvy Advisors and Consultants

“Serving Almost One Million Doctors, Financial Advisors and Medical Management Consultants Daily“

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SPONSORED BY: Marcinko & Associates, Inc.

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In crypto, bitcoin (BTC-USD) prices soared to trade above $101,300 a token in afternoon trade.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/2h47urt5

Big Tech stocks led the market higher on Wednesday, as investors digested another month of sticky inflation data that met economists’ expectations and likely pointed to a Federal Reserve interest rate cut next week. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite (^IXIC) jumped about 1.7% amid a feverish rally in the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks. Google parent Alphabet’s (GOOG, GOOGL) shares extended gains to hit a record high, rising more than 5%.

Meanwhile Tesla (TSLA), Meta (META) and Amazon (AMZN) all also surged to record highs, with Tesla notching its first record close in more than three years. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose around 0.8%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slipped about 0.2%.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/tj8smmes

Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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