The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services currently makes incentive payments to hospitals based partially on how well they do on patient satisfaction surveys. These surveys ask patients how they feel their pain was controlled and whether providers did everything they could to help with pain.
Critics have argued that these incentive payments are making the problem worse — that questions like, “Did hospital staff do everything they could to help with your pain?” set unrealistic expectations and foster more aggressive opioid prescribing by clinicians to avoid financial penalties.
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