Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Capitalism”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 469 records · Page 26Linked to original sources

Assessing the "evolving standards of decency:" perceptions of capital punishment for juveniles.

This study examines whether public opinion parallels recent judicial and statutory changes limiting the applicability of capital sentences to offenders younger than 18 years old. Two hundred and thirty-five undergraduate students were administered a vignette of a capital case and asked to render a sentence of death or life in prison without parole. Results revealed that age of the defendant was not a significant predictor of sentence type; participants sentenced 16- and 17-year-old defendants similarly to 18- and 25-year-old defendants. Therefore, public opinion appears inconsistent with legal and legislative changes to abandon the practice of executing juveniles. Findings also suggested that perceived level of the defendant's responsibility and general opinion about capital sentences significantly predicted sentence type; perceptions of greater responsibility were associated with an increased likelihood of a death sentence. However, participants did not perceive differences in responsibility between juvenile and adult defendants. In addition, participants were more comfortable sentencing defendants to death compared with life in prison.

Adolescent↗

Subsidy policies with capital accumulation: maintaining employment levels.

The authors study a dual economy model of growth and unemployment in the presence of Harris-Todaro type labor migration. The model is a discrete time model of economic growth with a given population but endogenous migration of labor. The economy tries to reach development in the quickest possible time while not allowing unemployment to rise above a socially acceptable level. The authors also characterize situations under which maximizing the accumulation of capital in each period is optimal and study how particular taxes and subsidies affect unemployment and capital accumulation. Finally, they show that a higher initial capital stock does not necessarily mean a quicker attainment of self- sustained full employment.

Commerce↗

Social security and strategic inter-vivos transfers of social capital.

"This paper explains public provision of social capital in an overlapping generations model with 'gerontocracy', without resort to any bequest motive. The old generation has an incentive to provide education and infrastructure because these goods shift the Laffer curve of social security taxation, thereby increasing old-age income in the political equilibrium. The incentive is stronger if population growth is larger. The marginal productivity of social capital in the political equilibrium may exceed or fall short of the marginal productivity of social capital in an efficient allocation."

Demography↗

Opportunities and risks in Philadelphia's capitation financing of public psychiatric services.

The city of Philadelphia was one of nine sites selected by the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to receive five-year funding to improve the delivery, quality and cost efficiency of public mental health services to its chronically mentally ill population. As part of the RWJ project, the city plans to restructure its delivery and reimbursement system, creating a not-for-profit central authority which will function as a health insurance organization (HIO) responsible for coordinating and managing psychiatric care to Medicaid clients. Operating under a model of capitation, the central authority will employ diverse funding mechanisms to finance and manage service delivery. This paper examines the benefits and risks inherent in the reorganization of Philadelphia's mental health service system under a capitation financing model. Issues considered include cost and utilization patterns, treatment outcomes, providers and their staffing patterns, service mix and the overall impact of capitation on clients.

Capitation Fee↗

Distributive justice in Medicaid capitation: the evidence from Colorado.

In 1995, the state of Colorado began a new funding program for the provision of mental health services to Medicaid recipients. Medicaid funding was restructured from a fee-for-service system into a capitated managed care system. The restructuring altered the way in which mental health resources were allocated within Colorado's mental health system. This article explores the ethical principles inherent in the allocation of mental health resources within Colorado. The allocation system before and after the capitation pilot is analyzed according to three models of distributive justice. Under capitation, access to care corresponds to egalitarian ideals, while service delivery and outcomes follow a more utilitarian philosophy. Results from several empirical studies of the Colorado Medicaid system are used to support this ethical analysis. The analysis leads to the suggestion that the fair-opportunity rule may be a useful principle for developing just distribution systems in other states in the future.

Capitation Fee↗

Mental health costs, other public costs, and family burden among mental health clients in capitated integrated service agencies.

This article explores the cost implications of the capitated integrated service agency (ISA) model for persons with severe and persistent mental illness. Two demonstration sites in California were chosen for a randomized comparison between an ISA model and usual care under the existing county service system. Each ISA demonstration program assumed fiscal and service responsibility for approximately 100 clients. Cost information was collected during a 3-year study period. The capitated ISAs reduced the previously skewed distribution of resources to clients and reduced family economic burden (in one site). However, they did not reduce law enforcement, health, and other nontreatment public costs. Although capitated funding enabled programmatic effectiveness and the shifting of services toward rehabilitation, it did not itself ensure such results.

California↗

Informed consent, capitation, and conflicts of interest in clinical trials: views from the field.

BACKGROUND: The beliefs of research team members about informed consent practices are not well studied, especially in regard to financial aspects of research such as capitation fees. Sponsors of research offer capitation fees for the enrollment of subjects, and although this money is intended to cover the costs of the research it can sometimes be used in other ways. There is no clear consensus about whether this financial aspect of trials should be part of the informed consent process or whether it represents a potential conflict of interest. METHODS: We presented several hypothetical cases to members of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) at a semi-annual meeting. ACOSOG is a federally funded clinical trials group evaluating surgical and adjuvant methods of cancer treatment. The meeting included surgeons, nurses, case managers, and others involved in clinical surgical trials. RESULTS: We found that most respondents believed that it would be a violation of the protocol to enroll a subject who showed lack of recall about the study. Most respondents also favored disclosure of capitation fees, especially if those fees went into discretionary accounts, but there was some disagreement about the benefit of that disclosure to potential participants. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows the need for greater work in ensuring that research team members share common understandings about informed consent. It also shows that most of these research team participants are prepared to make more disclosure about financial aspects of research than current standards in fact require.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Apparent skepticism: capital punishment and medical evidence.

In recent cases on the constitutionality of sentencing to death criminals who were younger than 18 years of age at the time of their crimes or who are mentally retarded, the US Supreme Court has rejected medical evidence that such persons categorically possess diminished culpability. Rather, the Court has accepted the public's "apparent skepticism" of such a scientific consensus in upholding the execution of capital offenders who are 16 years of age or older. The 1952 English case of Craig and Bentley sparked discussion of similar issues in the United Kingdom and contributed to the abolition of capital punishment for murder in that country. US courts should have more deference for such medical evidence, despite perceived widespread resistance to the conclusions of researchers that adolescents and mentally retarded persons categorically lack sufficient maturity, judgment, and deliberation to receive capital punishment and that they are not deterred from murder by the threat of execution.

Adolescent↗

The response of providers to capitation payment: a case-study from Thailand.

Those designing payment systems for health care in low and middle income countries are increasingly looking to capitation payment, in order to avoid the cost inflation experienced with fee-for-service payment. However, there is virtually no documentation of the experience of introducing capitation payment, or of its effects. This paper draws on several research studies to explore responses by health care providers at both the market and facility level to the introduction of capitation payment, in the context of a new compulsory insurance scheme for workers in Thailand. The paper ends by identifying lessons for both Thailand itself and for other countries.

Capitation Fee↗

Risk-adjusted capitation payments for catastrophic risks based on multi-year prior costs.

In many countries regulated competition among health insurance companies has recently been proposed or implemented. A crucial issue is whether or not the benefits package offered by competing insurers should also cover catastrophic risks (like several forms of expensive long-term care) in addition to non-catastrophic risks (like hospital care and physician services). In 1988 the Dutch government proposed compulsory national health insurance based on regulated competition among insurer as well as among providers of care. The competing insurers should offer a benefits package covering both non-catastrophic risks and catastrophic risks. The insurers would be largely financed via risk-adjusted capitation payments. The government intended to use a capitation formula that is, besides some demographic variables, based on multi-year prior costs. This paper presents the results of an explorative empirical analysis of the possible consequences of such a capitation formula for catastrophic risks. The main conclusion is that this formula would be inadequate because it would leave ample room for cream skimming.

Capitation Fee↗

Cost-effectiveness analysis and capital costs.

Traditionally, economic evaluations in terms of cost-effectiveness analysis are based, explicitly or implicitly, on the assumption of constant returns to scale. This assumption has been criticized in the literature and the role of cost-effectiveness as a tool for decision making has been questioned. In this paper we analyze the case of increasing returns to scale due to fixed capital costs. Cost-effectiveness analysis is regarded as a tool for estimating a cost function. To this cost function two types of decision rules can be applied, the budget approach and the constant price approach. It is shown that in the presence of fixed capital costs the application of these two decision rules to a specific patient group will give different results. The budget approach may lead to suboptimizations, while using the price as a decision rule will give optimal solutions. With fixed capital costs and when an investment can be used for treating several patient groups, these groups are no longer independent. Therefore the cost-effectiveness analysis has to be performed simultaneously for all patient groups that are potential users of the investment.

Budgets↗

Physician profiling and capitated income distribution.

Increasingly, gastroenterologists are addressing the practice issues of physician profiling and capitation. This article describes a method to easily create practice-generated physician profiles that are used in quality of care management and contracting decisions. These profiles are also used as part of a method for capitation revenue distribution that is described and that has been used by the author's practice for over 3 years. This capitation revenue distribution methodology properly rewards the provision of cost-effective care and bonuses desirable to physician-patient relationships, while protecting against under- or over-utilization.

Capitation Fee↗

Making capitated Medicare work for women: policy and research challenges.

Growth in capitated Medicare has special ramifications for older women who comprise the majority of Medicare beneficiaries. Older women are more likely than men to have chronic conditions that lead to illness and disability, and they often have fewer financial and social resources to cope with these problems. Gender differences in health status have a number of important implications for the financing and delivery of care for older women under both traditional fee-for-service Medicare and capitation. The utilization of effective preventive interventions, new therapeutic interventions for the management of common chronic disorders, and more cost-effective models of chronic disease management could potentially extend the active life expectancy of older women. However, there are financial and delivery system barriers to achieving these objectives. Traditional FFS Medicare has gaps in coverage of care for chronic illness and disability that disproportionately impact women. Managed care potentially offers flexibility to allocate resources creatively, to develop new models of care, and offer enhanced benefits with lower out-of-pocket costs. However, challenges to realizing this potential under Medicare managed care with unique implications for older women include: possible gender bias in capitation payments, risk selection, inadequacy of risk adjustment models, benefit and market instability, and disenrollment patterns.

Aged↗

A capitated model for a cross-section of severely mentally ill clients: hospitalization.

Hospitalization outcomes are examined in a three year random assignment controlled study of two capitated Integrated Service Agencies (ISAs) in California. Study participants were a cross-section of severely mentally ill clients. Using the flexibility of capitated funding, the urban ISA reduced inpatient length of stay and days, but not admissions. Elements of the capitated ISA model worked together to produce clinically appropriate and less costly use of inpatient services. At the rural ISA, admissions were reduced substantially during the first two years of the demonstration but not costs.

Adult↗

The financial impact on community mental health centers of capitated contracts with Medicaid: the Utah Prepaid Mental Health Plan.

Under the Utah Prepaid Mental Health Plan, three of the eleven Community Mental Health Centers in Utah signed capitation contracts with the state Medicaid program. The capitated Centers initially accepted the risk for inpatient care, with the risk later being extended to also include outpatient services. This study contrasts the financial experiences of the capitated Centers and five noncontracting Centers. While various patterns of financial management are evident in the data, it appears that the decision to contract had, at worst, a neutral effect on overall financial performance. Managed care programs with different designs may have different results.

Capitation Fee↗

Risk adjustment of capitation payments to behavioral health care carve-outs: how well do existing methodologies account for psychiatric disability?

This study used 1994-1995 administrative data from a large public employer to examine the viability of commercial risk adjustment systems for setting capitation payments to competing behavioral health care "carve-outs". The ability of Hierarchical Condition Categories and Adjusted Diagnostic Groups to predict psychiatric expenditures was improved by controlling separately for psychiatric disability. However, even the best models underpredicted expenditures of patients with psychiatric disability by 15%. Relative to full capitation, "mixed" payment systems and soft capitation reduce the ability of carve-outs to earn disproportionate profits by enrolling healthy patients and avoiding sick ones, yet also diminish incentives for cost containment.

Adult↗

Capitation and risk adjustment in health care.

Capitation and risk adjustment have become the chosen policy instruments to seek cost containment and equity of access for many developed health care systems. Increasingly, this entails the prospective setting of global budgets for the health care expenditures incurred by health care plans on behalf of their members. Methods of deriving such budgets are diverse and tailored to the specific circumstances of the health care system they seek to serve. This special issue presents a collection of papers devoted to issues surrounding the rationale, derivation, and implementation of capitation and risk adjustment methods of financing health care. These are discussed within the context of health care systems in eight countries, illustrating the range of interest in the topic. Undoubtedly, capitation and risk adjustment will become increasingly significant elements of virtually all systems of health care and we hope the collection of papers will help to stimulate further debate and research in this important and interesting area of health care financing.

Budgets↗

An assessment of capitation in the General Dental Service Contract. 1. The level of caries and its treatment in regularly attending children and adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the dental health of regularly attending 7-8- and 14-15-year-olds registered under capitation in 1994. To compare the dental health of regularly attending 14-15-year-olds registered under capitation in 1994 with regularly attending patients of a similar age treated under fee-for-service in 1989. DESIGN: Random samples of 7-8- and 14-15-year-olds. Data were recorded on decayed and filled teeth, extracted for caries and teeth fissure sealed. RESULTS: Prevalence of caries in first permanent molars of 7-8-year-olds was 15-16%. Mean caries experience of deciduous posterior teeth was 1.78-2.51. 83-86% had no more than two untreated, decayed, posterior deciduous teeth. Prevalence of caries in 14-15-year-olds was 44-60% while mean caries experience was 1.29-1.83. Reductions in caries experience of 30-39% in 14-15-year-olds for 1989-1994 were due mainly to falls of 42-45% in mean numbers of teeth filled. Increases in mean numbers of decayed, untreated teeth were 0.07-0.11. The proportion of patients with teeth extracted because of caries was 2.4-3.8%. 30-50% had fissure sealants in 1994 compared with 13-25% in 1989. CONCLUSIONS: Dental health of regularly attending capitation patients is generally satisfactory with little evidence of 'supervised neglect'. Prevalence of fissure sealants has increased while the numbers of filled teeth has reduced. Numbers of decayed, untreated teeth have increased but the numbers of teeth extracted for caries have remained low.

Adolescent↗