Insuring the Mental Health Patient

[cricket]

Medical coding for insurance is causing quite a problem for those in the mental health industry. With 20% of the population needing some type of help from the mental health industry, we have a serious issue at hand:

Quote:

Published at 4:45 a.m. ET: Marc Milhander conducted more than 100 psychotherapy sessions in the first few weeks of this year, treating patients ranging from the mildly anxious to the severely depressed and the 24-year-old with antisocial personality disorder who really wants to get his hands on a gun.

But Milhander, 54, a psychologist who co-owns a busy Niles, Mich., counseling center, is getting pretty anxious himself.

He’s among a growing number of U.S. mental health professionals who say their insurance claims have been denied -- and their payments have been withheld -- because of problems resulting from nationwide changes in psychotherapy treatment codes that took effect Jan. 1.

“I’ve been paid for five hours of work for the month of January,” said Milhander, who supports a staff of four and oversees 300 patients a month. “I just wrote a big, fat check out of my personal bank account to keep us afloat.”

Further information, and source:

Therapists: Change in medical coding threatens mental health care

[Kevin H]

A related consern is some of these clients, who are responding to situational stress can get labled as having a mental illness limiting their options and maybe having to carry the lable for a long, long time. I just read an article about this problem in a news letter at work last night. We need to have something better.

[Ted Oplinger]

A related consern is some of these clients, who are responding to situational stress can get labled as having a mental illness limiting their options and maybe having to carry the lable for a long, long time. I just read an article about this problem in a news letter at work last night. We need to have something better.

Being labelled is what prevents people who need help from seeking it, particularly those dealing with short-term, stress-related conditions. I agree - something better needs to be put in place.

[debbym]

traditionally, in the usa system, there is a great support of massively medicating the designated mentally ill population. Insurance freely pays for extensive medications, but for therapy which may greatly reduce medication and medication cost to the system, is much less supported.

every mental illness is exacerbated by life distress, and stress management greatly reduces medication demands.

of course the pharmaceutical industry is happy for massive medicating.

debbym

[cricket]

From what I understand, the psychiatrists who prescribe these medications are not being paid by insurance companies because the coding is so out of whack right now. So, even if the medication is being paid for by insurance, the doctors cannot prescribe new medication (or renew expired prescriptions) because they cannot afford to stay in practice.

I personally know of a psychiatric group here in St. Louis who have moved on from accepting any insurance because the time spent coding for the proper reasons is too outlandish. They are operating on a cash/credit system only. The doctor with whom I have the closest connection is considering an early retirement (at age 42) to be a stay-at-home mother.

[phkrause]

Medical coding for insurance is causing quite a problem for those in the mental health industry. With 20% of the population needing some type of help from the mental health industry, we have a serious issue at hand:

Quote:

Published at 4:45 a.m. ET: Marc Milhander conducted more than 100 psychotherapy sessions in the first few weeks of this year, treating patients ranging from the mildly anxious to the severely depressed and the 24-year-old with antisocial personality disorder who really wants to get his hands on a gun.

But Milhander, 54, a psychologist who co-owns a busy Niles, Mich., counseling center, is getting pretty anxious himself.

He’s among a growing number of U.S. mental health professionals who say their insurance claims have been denied -- and their payments have been withheld -- because of problems resulting from nationwide changes in psychotherapy treatment codes that took effect Jan. 1.

“I’ve been paid for five hours of work for the month of January,” said Milhander, who supports a staff of four and oversees 300 patients a month. “I just wrote a big, fat check out of my personal bank account to keep us afloat.”

Further information, and source:

Therapists: Change in medical coding threatens mental health care

HC has been a crock for many years. Prices have been going up, up, up for so long we've come to expect it as normal. Have you ever looked and looked at your HC policies? There's pretty much no preventive medicine. Be it for mental patients, elderly, cronicly sick, etc. One of the things that was good for my wife was choropratic adjustments, but HC barely covers that. HC has no room for preventive healthcare. I don't see this changing at all. I remember back in the 60s, there was this Jewish Pastor and his wife that ran a nursing home. He setup a menu based on each person, according to our health code, what ever that means , and many of the patients actually went home. Of course this costs lots of money and Insurance will not pay for this. What we need is a HC system that believes in preventive not after the fact. The problem I think is the greed for money.