Incentivized collaborative care to disseminate and enhance contingency‐management services

Davidson et al. (2025) paid doctors to look at contingency-management data. They wanted to see if money would make doctors send more patients to CM programs. The team ran the plan in real clinics with adults who have substance-use disorders. No control group was used; they just watched numbers before and after the payments started.

The doctors liked the extra cash and said the task was easy. Yet the number of new CM referrals barely moved. In short, the incentive was pleasant but not powerful enough to change prescriber behavior.

Hartzler et al. (2016) showed that giving staff ownership—letting them co-design a 90-day CM trial and naming two on-site champions—kept the program alive long-term. Their method cost little money and worked.

DeFulio et al. (2023) got big gains by paying patients directly through a phone app; 76% of days were adherent and no one dropped out. Patient-level money moved behavior, provider-level money did not.

Blackman et al. (2022) also used small staff payments, but paired them with daily prompts and feedback. That bundle raised trainer integrity, showing that cash plus cues works better than cash alone.

If you want more CM referrals, paying prescribers is not enough. Add local champions, give quick feedback, or shift the incentive straight to patients via apps. Try one of those moves next week instead of writing another check to doctors.