title: Financial risk sharing with providers in health maintenance organizations, 1999.
abstract: The transfer of financial risk from health maintenance organizations (HMOs) to providers is controversial. To provide timely national data on these practices, we conducted a telephone survey in 1999 of a multi-staged probability sample of HMOs in 20 of the nation's 60 largest markets, accounting for 86% of all HMO enrollees nationally. Among those sampled, 82% responded. We found that HMOs' provider networks with physicians, hospitals, skilled nursing homes, and home health agencies are complex and multi-tiered Seventy-six percent of HMOs in our study use contracts for their HMO products that involve global, professional services, or hospital risk capitation to intermediate entities. These arrangements account for between 24.5 million and 27.4 million of the 55.9 million commercial and Medicare HMO enrollees in the 60 largest markets. While capitation arrangements are particularly common in California, they are more common elsewhere than many assume. The complex layering of risk sharing and delegation of care management responsibility raise questions about accountability and administrative costs in managed care. Do complex structures provide a way to involve providers more directly in managed care, or do they diffuse authority and add to administrative costs?
authors.affiliation: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., Washington, DC 20024, USA.
authors.forename: Marsha R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Gold
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lake
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hurley
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sinclair
mesh_terms: D002140:California; D002204:Capitation Fee; D003284:Contract Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019981:Health Care Sector / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006759:Hospital-Physician Joint Ventures; D006761:Hospitals; D007193:Independent Practice Associations; D006278:Medicare / Q000458:organization & administration; D010067:Ownership / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010820:Physicians; D011336:Probability; D020414:Risk Sharing, Financial / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012941:Social Responsibility; D019464:Tax Exemption; D014481:United States