Income generation depends, ultimately, on the volume of business. Thus proper coding may be a relevant issue, and an appropriate system needs to be developed and maintained. The physician will need to bear a certain amount of responsibility for the coding. That is to say, that the physician needs to provide the information which will permit proper coding so that all potential income can be captured. Ignoring withholds and bonuses, for simplicity, capitation income can be easily calculated for the practice as a whole.
Capitation has one additional caveat.
That is the associated risk. By this I mean, if one estimates that X number of hours will be needed to care for the capitated population number Y, there is the possibility that more than X hours will be required. Should that occur, additional unreimbursed hours will be worked, or fee generating hours will be decreased. In the latter case, there is a total of fewer dollars and less dollars per hour worked. In the former, the total income may be maintained, but at the cost of a lower income per hour worked.