Managing underwriting risk in capitated provider groups.

Physicians working under capitated arrangements must provide quality care and make money, i.e., manage the underwriting risk. Sometimes those ends can seem to be contradictory. To use capitation as a tool to provide cost-effective and quality health care, it behooves the physician to know what forces are at work that influence the results of this capitated environment. Several of those areas are under control of the physician directly and others are not. The physician must know what he or she can control and what cannot be controlled.