title: Capitation and racial and ethnic differences in use and cost of public mental health services.
abstract: This study investigated racial and ethnic differences in the probability of mental health service use and costs of treatment before and after the implementation of capitated financing. Models were created to test effects on utilization and costs of African American, Latinos, and white mental health consumers. As service use and costs declined under capitation, Latino, and white levels of use and cost tended to converge. African American utilization patterns in the capitated areas tended to parallel their white counterparts. Differential rejection by, or exclusion of, African American and Latino consumers did not appear to occur in response to capitation.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, 120 Haviland Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-7400, USA. snowden@berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Lonnie R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Snowden
authors.forename: Neal T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Wallace
authors.forename: Soo Hyang
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Jur-Shan
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Joan R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Bloom
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D002204:Capitation Fee; D019992:Databases as Topic; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D017150:Public Sector