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The Incentives Lab
HBT-INC-0253 · Dimension INC · Incentives

Sick Care Economics

Profit pools concentrate around treating chronic illness, not preventing it.

Healthcare Perverse Pattern·Perverse Incentive·Grade C·draft· enriching…

Scientific Definition

Profit pools concentrate around treating chronic illness, not preventing it.

Plain-English Definition

Profit pools concentrate around treating chronic illness, not preventing it.

Feynman Explanation

Prevention is a rounding error on the income statement.

Core Principle

Profit pools concentrate around treating chronic illness, not preventing it.

Mechanisms

Psychological

Pending editorial review.

Behavioral Economic

Profit pools concentrate around treating chronic illness, not preventing it.

Neurological

Pending editorial review.

Evolutionary

Pending editorial review.

Sociological

Where the margin lives, the strategy follows.

Computational

Pending editorial review.

Systems

Pending editorial review.

Inputs (Triggers)

Pending editorial review.

Outputs (Behaviors)

Pending editorial review.

Behavioral Signature

Prevention is a rounding error on the income statement.

Examples

Everyday
  • Diabetes management dwarfs diabetes prevention spend by orders of magnitude.
Modern (Organizational)
  • Where the margin lives, the strategy follows.
Historical

Pending editorial review.

Famous Experiments

Pending editorial review.

Design Principles

  • Value-based and outcome-based reimbursement at population scale.

Measurement Approaches

Pending editorial review.

Evidence

Evidence Grade
C (A strongest → E speculative)
Replication
★★★☆☆
Intervention Confidence
4 / 5
Consensus
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Limitations
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Open Research Questions

Pending editorial review.

Primary References

Pending editorial review.

Signature Section

The Perverse Incentive Lens™

How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.

Exploitation
Where the margin lives, the strategy follows.
Amplifying Incentives
Where the margin lives, the strategy follows.
Org Failure Modes
Where the margin lives, the strategy follows.
Societal Failure Modes
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Ethical Considerations
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Redesign Strategies
Value-based and outcome-based reimbursement at population scale.
Diagnostic Questions
  • Value-based and outcome-based reimbursement at population scale.
Warning Signs

Pending editorial review.

Red Flags

Pending editorial review.

Intervention Playbook
Individual
Value-based and outcome-based reimbursement at population scale.
Team
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Organization
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Policy
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
AI Implications
Detection
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Measurement
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Mitigation
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).
Responsible Use
Pending editorial review (HBT v1.0 auto-seed).

Interactive Mini Network

Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.

HBT-INC-0253 · INC
Sick Care Economics
SCMA15-Minute AppointmentsBD340B Discount Arbitr…DMDefensive MedicineDCDual-Eligible Care S…FHFee-for-Service Heal…HOHospital Occupancy T…IBInsurance Billing Co…ICInsurance Claim Fric…MDMedical Device PricingOPOpioid Prescription …

Knowledge Graph Neighbors

Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.

Same family
HBT-INC-0098Dual-Eligible Care Shifting

Federal reimbursement rules incentivize cycling seniors through hospitalizations to upgrade billing categories.

Same family
HBT-INC-000215-Minute Appointments

Productivity targets compress visits, raising misdiagnosis and burnout.

Same family
HBT-INC-0003340B Discount Arbitrage

A federal mandate intended to lower drug costs for the poor became a profit engine for hospitals and contract pharmacies.

Same family
HBT-INC-0092Defensive Medicine

Liability exposure pushes clinicians to order tests for legal protection rather than clinical need.

Same family
HBT-INC-0125Fee-for-Service Healthcare

Paying providers per procedure rewards more procedures, not better outcomes.

Same family
HBT-INC-0147Hospital Occupancy Targets

Systems paid per filled bed have weak incentives to invest in prevention or community health.

Same family
HBT-INC-0162Insurance Billing Complexity

Opaque billing rules create lucrative work for administrators and revenue-cycle firms instead of care.

Same family
HBT-INC-0163Insurance Claim Friction

Insurers profit when claims are denied, delayed, or abandoned.

Same family
HBT-INC-0175Medical Device Pricing

Hospital group-purchasing and opaque contracting inflate device costs far above marginal cost.

Same family
HBT-INC-0196Opioid Prescription Incentives

Sales bonuses and prescriber relationships fueled mass over-prescription and an addiction crisis.

Same family
HBT-INC-0197Orphan Drug Monopoly Extension

Federal incentives meant for neglected diseases get used to privatize widely available medicines.

Same family
HBT-INC-0202Pharma Patent Cliff

Drug companies optimize for high-margin chronic conditions, not cures.

Version History

v1.1.0 · 2026-06-28Initial auto-seed from corpus.