Philadelphia's Capitation Plan for Mental Health Services
Aileen B. Rothbard Sc.D.1,
Trevor R. Hadley Ph.D.2,
Arie P. Schinnar Ph.D.1,
Douglas Morgan M.P.A., and
Barbara Whitehill B.A.3
1 Policy Modeling Workshop at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
2 School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania
3 Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania
The Policy Modeling Workshop, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 3814 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
Dr. Sbarfstein's Introduction: Prospective payment is the major economic change that is reshaping the delivery of medical care. Capitation financing for the chronic mentally ill is an innovative and promising alternative to underfunded and bureaucratically rigid public programs on the one hand and underfunded retrospective cost-based Medicaid programs on the other. This month's column describes one such capitation plan. Its impact on the target population as well as on the use of resources by persons with long-term and severe mental illnesses will require close evaluation.
Note:
The authors acknowledge the valuable contributions of Richard C. Surles, Ph.D. , and the late Meiwyn L. Posternak, M.D., to the design of the capitation plan. They received research support through a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.
