The word: Capitated ? Cannot find word in dictionary?

[RobertMay]

My boss used the word: Capitated in a sentence:

"The Office of Policy & Government requested the Legislature to take a look at capitated rates which means operate like a HMO."

I cannot find out if this is a word in the dictionary. It indicates it is not a word. I found the following sentence on the website regarding Medicare plans and they used the word capitated.

"The advantage of risk-adjusted rates is that
they better match capitated plan payments to
the health status and costs of each

beneficiary."

So, should I change the sentence and use another word. Or is this word okay to use in the sentence.

Thanks.

[pyoung]

This site may help:

Understanding Capitation

[David L.]

There is that site, and more succinctly:

Capitation is the payment of a fee to a doctor or other person, or a grant to a school or body that provides services to a number of people, such that the amount paid is determined by the number of patients, pupils, or customers.

( from the Latin,'cap, caput, capitus,' etc "a head" where 'a head' means per person ( each, of course, having a 'head'; hence, how many 'heads'/how many people are we talking about here?). That is, a head count, and pay according to how many! Just like going to the cinema, or on a roller coaster - ex except the other way round: they give the money!

[Charlie Bernstein]

I thought it's what they did when they found out you hadn't done anything wrong, after all, and put your head back on....