title: The effect of capitation on GPs' referral decisions.
abstract: 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trial, the payment system for general practitioners (GPs) has been changed; a practice allowance component has been replaced by a capitation component and the fee-per-item component constitutes a smaller part of a GPs practice income than previously.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.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Administration, University of Oslo, Norway. tor.iversen@samfunnsmed.uio.no
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iversen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lurås
mesh_terms: 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