Capitation begins to transform the face of American medicine

Canadian physicians only need look to the south to see that capitation can control not only their fees but also the amount of resources they use, the amount of care their patients can expect and the way doctors and patients relate to one another. In the US, capitation is rewarding doctors for doing less and penalizing them if they do too much. ''Instead of a being cash source,'' says Dr. John Verhoff, a family practitioner in Columbus, Ohio, '' a patient visit is a cash drain.'' Milan Korock looks at the ways capitation is changing medicine in the US.