Evaluation of the Arizona health care cost-containment system

This article evaluates Arizona's alternative to the acute portion of Medicaid, the Arizona Health Care Cost-Containment System (AHCCCS), during its first 18 months of operation from October 1982 through March 1984. It focuses on the program's implementation and describes and evaluates the program's innovative features. The features of the program outlined in the original AHCCCS legislation included: Competitive bidding, prepaid capitation of providers, capitation of the State by the Health Care Financing Administration, assignment of gatekeepers, beneficiary copayment, private administration, inclusion of private and public employees and county financed long-term care. An assessment of implementation during the second 18 months of the program reporting on more recent developments and is now being prepared by SRI International.