Dental school capitation - an historical perspective

The Health Professions Capitation Grant program was in existence for nine years. At its inception the capitation grant program was intended principally to be an incentive program for various health professions schools, dental schools among them, to increase the output of manpower. In recent years, the program had changed its emphasis for dental schools to curricular modifications designed to improve the geographic and specialty distribution of dental graduates. All the same time the appropriations for the program had steadily declined since 1972. These developments and the legislative actions that led to the termination of the capitation program are reviewed.