The effect of capitation on GPs' referral decisions.
In the Norwegian capitation trial, the payment system for general practitioners (GPs) has been changed; a practice allowance component has been replaced by a capitation component and the fee-per-item component constitutes a smaller part of a GPs practice income than previously. From the theoretical modelling of GPs' referral decisions, we predict that the replacement of the practice allowance by a capitation component will increase the rate of referrals to specialists. This hypothesis is supported by an exploratory empirical study with data from a sample of GPs participating in the experiment.
Iversen
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T
Center for Health Administration, University of Oslo, Norway. tor.iversen@samfunnsmed.uio.no
Lurås
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H
D000368:Aged; D002204:Capitation Fee; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017059:Models, Econometric; D009664:Norway; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000191:economics*; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms