Capitation: an update

MANAGED CARE May 2000. ©2000 MediMedia USA

Those not-so-long-ago predictions that global capitation would come to define the financing of American medicine haven't come to pass. In fact, the use of capitation has, more or less, hit a plateau in the past couple of years. Meanwhile, a capitation-rate analysis suggests that physicians who accept capitation contracts are able to negotiate higher rates when risk pools are smaller — though some physicians will argue the rates themselves aren't commensurate with their own risk.

SOURCE: BECTON DICKINSON REPORT ON PHYSICIANS IN MANAGED CARE 1999