A CAPITATED PAYMENT SYSTEM FOR INVOLUNTARY MENTAL-HEALTH CLIENTS

This DataWatch examines an outpatient capitated payment system, in the state of Oregon, designed to enhance community services for persons w ith chronic mental illness who had repeatedly been hospitalized involu ntarily. Special state funds and Medicaid dollars were used to pay pro viders prospectively on a risk adjusted basis for the delivery of outp atient mental health services. During the three year study period clie nts were able to be discharged from the state hospital. Although the d ata are not straightforward, capitated clients' use of the state menta l hospital seems to have declined somewhat more than that of compariso n subjects. Outpatient service use was modest and appeared to have lit tle relationship to a client's level of illness severity. Indeed, it w as not possible to predict prospectively these clients' outpatient men tal health services expenditures.