The Re-Emergence of Medical Capitation?

Posted on November 13, 2008 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™
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Re-Thinking Fixed Payment Medicine 

[By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA, CMP™ ]

[By Hope Rachel Hetico; RN, MHA, CMP™]

In February 2008, the industry leading California legislature passed “Welfare and Institutions” Code Section 14105.19. It required a 10% fee-for-service payment reduction to Medi-Cal physicians and mental healthcare providers. The new law took effect on July 1, 2008 and the rush seeking managed care capitated contracts was on. 

Capitation Back-in-the-Day

Yet, only a decade ago, astute physician executives and healthcare administrators thought it incredulous that they should accept pre-payment for unknown commitments to provide an unknown amount of medical care or health services. It seemed to create an unnatural and difficult set of incentives where fewer patients were seen, and less care rendered. It never equated to additional reimbursement. And, more than a few medical providers and healthcare facilities had a natural aversion to capitated, fixed payment or contractual medicine. It had always been associated with the worst components of managed care; hurried office visits and soul-less physicians.

Fixed Payments Re-Emerging

Today, the national conversion to a modified form of capitation financing is again re-emerging as a marketing force, and not merely a temporary healthcare business trend. More than 40% of all physicians in the country are now employees of a managed care organization that uses, or is re-considering, actuarially-equivalent medical capitation.

The Promise?

Has medical capitation reimbursement finally fulfilled its promise as a quality improving and revenue enhancing machination; or is it just another managed care cost reduction strategy that financially squeezes doctors and hospitals, and limits patient care and choice? To answer this query, one needs to review the Stark Laws.

Whole-Sale Medicine

Curiously, Stark Laws I, II and III were created to eliminate self-referral concerns potential leading to excessive medical care and fee-for-service payments. Ironically, these types of economic enriching paradigms of less-care were perfectly acceptable. Many, also never understood how a commitment to treat an entire patient population cohort could be made with little or no actuarial information. Hence frustration was the initial exposure of many medical providers to capitated reimbursement; also known as “wholesale medicine.”

Aligned Incentives

But, since inception, more modern medical cost accounting endeavors have gradually demonstrated that capitation has some advantages over traditional fee-for-service care. For example, it can create and align incentives that help patients, providers and payers by limiting their contingent fiscal liabilities. So, capitation in the current credit-deprived nationally economy is increasingly being viewed in a more positive way. More importantly, those healthcare organizations and providers that embrace it may thrive going forward; while those opposed may not!

Assessment

So, how should physician and nurse executives, administrators, CXOs, managers and financial advisors navigate these treacherous fixed-payment waters?  One sound approach is to rely on a leader in the hospital, medical clinic and healthcare administration publication industry.  Our 2-volume, 24 chapters, quarterly journal-guide is relevant to the entire fluctuating healthcare space and can be a valuable navigation tool – in these troubling economic times. 

Capitation “ReDux” – Part Two

MORE: Capitation & Actuarial Medical Econometrics

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Non-Profit Hospitals Seeking Financing

Posted on November 13, 2008 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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Association of Debt Financing with Not-For-Profit Hospitals

[By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA, CMP™]

US not-for-profit hospitals undertook unprecedented amounts of debt in the mid-to-late 1990s. This happened because sparse corporate finance theory – and the modicum of economic literature on hospital financing at the time – suggested that debt constrained hospitals’ capacity to deliver uncompensated care.

Little Research

Yet, few health economists empirically evaluated the potential association of debt financing with uncompensated medical care. Of the first perhaps – in our space – was Stephen A. Magnus; PhD, MS Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, University of Kansas School of Medicine; Dean G. Smith, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan School of Public Health; and John R.C. Wheeler, PhD, Professor, Department of Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan School of Public Health [personal communication].

Multi-State Statistical Analysis

In one of the first statistical analyses of a multi-state sample of audited hospital financial statements in 1997 – and ultimately published in the Journal of Health Care Finance in 2004 – the researchers found that hospital debt levels predict higher levels of uncompensated care.

More Tax-Exempt Debt Issued

As further studies yielded similar results over time; hospital boards, policy makers and regulators concerned with the provision of uncompensated care encouraged hospitals to issue more debt. This encouragement was provided through explicit flexibility, such as removing requirements for hospitals to issue tax-exempt bonds through state finance authorities and/or removing the project financing constraint. Likewise, hospital CFOs and physician-executives who managed their organizations’ financial risk, benefited from a realization that optimizing the sources of financing did not impede mission-related objectives.

Assessment of Temporal Trade-Offs

Relationships between hospital operations, including uncompensated care, and capital structure represent a fruitful area for future investigations. A key issue to explore is the possibility of inter-temporal trade-offs. Higher levels of debt may initially help to fund public services like uncompensated medical care, but debt repayment eventually could limit a hospital’s ability to provide core community benefits.

Bankruptcies

Up until the recent financial meltdown and credit market freeze, even current studies still seemed to offer no evidence to support concerns that debt had a negative impact on uncompensated care. However, hospitals filing bankruptcy in the fourth quarter, of 2008 included: a two-hospital system in Honolulu; one in Pontiac, MI; Trinity Hospital in Erin, Tennessee; Century City Doctors Hospital in Beverly Hills, Lincoln Park Hospital in Chicago, and four hospital system Hospital Partners of America, in Charlotte. 

Assessment

On the other hand, research results simply may have reflected the unusual economic and stock-market conditions prevailing in the mid 1990s; that are certainly not present today.

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Conclusion

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