Will pay-for-performance and quality reporting affect health care disparities?

Pay-for-performance (P4P) and public quality-reporting programs can increase the quality of health care for the services being measured. However, unless carefully designed, these programs may have the unintended consequence of increasing racial and ethnic disparities. This paper describes ways in which P4P and public reporting programs may increase disparities and suggests ways in which programs might be designed that will make them likely to reduce, or at least not increase, disparities.