In return, they will receive a check from Harvard Pilgrim, ranging from $10 to $75.
The program, called SaveOn, is intended to help patients make smarter health care choices, according to Harvard Pilgrim, and to rein in the runaway prices of imaging tests and other procedures that have contributed to steadily rising premiums.
“It’s the kind of decision patients aren’t making today because they don’t have the information,’’ said Eric H. Schultz, chief executive of Harvard Pilgrim, the state’s second-largest health insurer. “Doctors are still referring patients for diagnostics based on the way they’ve always done it, without regard for the cost. But we can’t sit around and accept behavior that drives costs up with little or no impact on quality.’’
By throwing down the gauntlet before the state’s powerful medical care providers, Schultz said Wellesley-based Harvard Pilgrim is responding to the demands of financially pressed customers and Patrick administration officials, who have called on insurers to create incentives to contain the escalating price of care.
But some doctors are skeptical of anything that would take away from them decisions about where to refer patients.
They say they are in the best position to vouch for the quality of medical test providers and have longstanding relationships with testing companies that get them data quickly and accurately.
“I do have concerns about this,’’ said Dr. Rick Lopez, a primary care internist and chief medical officer of Newton’s Atrius Health, an alliance of six community-based doctors groups, including Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates.
“When I refer a patient for a test or an imaging, I’m taking into account what the patient needs and I’m referring the patient to a place where there’s quality. And I know that from experience.’’
Lopez also noted that if something goes wrong with a patient’s care, “The doctors are liable.’’
Insurers have been pushing to slow the rate of cost increases in recent years, both through products they offer and the ways they reimburse doctors and hospitals.
