Gainsharing and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

“Gainsharing” is a business practice that can reduce costs and increase efficiency while engaging and rewarding front-line workers, those who work most directly with customers or with the product a company manufactures. Although the practice reportedly began as early as the nineteenth century, it became popular in the 1930s in the steel manufacturing industry. While several different forms of performance incentives fall under the category of gainsharing, in the typical gainsharing arrangement employees suggest cost-saving improvements to processes and the selection of materials. They receive a previously agreed upon portion of the savings associated with the improvements as compensation. Hospitals and healthcare systems have attempted to introduce gainsharing programs in healthcare settings in order to help reduce