Like any small business, physicians need enough incoming revenue to keep practicing. That’s why monetary incentive is so strong:

The way cancer doctors are paid may influence the choice of drugs they use in chemotherapy, a study published yesterday has concluded.

Payment methods do not seem to affect whether doctors favor chemotherapy over other treatments, the study’s authors said. But once they decide to use chemotherapy, the current payment system appears to prompt some doctors to use more expensive drugs, the study found.

“Providers who were more generously reimbursed,” the authors wrote, “prescribed more costly chemotherapy regimens to metastatic breast, colorectal and lung cancer patients.” The study, by researchers from the University of Michigan and Harvard University, is published in the current issue of the academic journal Health Affairs.

Physicians need enough revenue to stay in business and continue treating patients. Sad to say, but money talks.