Mental Health/Managed Care

The following are several web pages found on the internet pertaining to mental health and managed care. Following that are a listing of five sites on the net that contain information about managed care in mental health as well as information about mental health in general. Since managed care is a relatively new area for mental health, there is not alot of hard data to be found. Most of what is out there currently consists of opinion and speculation about the way things are now and what may be in the future. There is some information about current managed care mental health programs, consisting of good and bad reviews from the perspective of the consumer and from the perspective of providers. If managed care is a new topic for you, the mental health net has a managed care glossary which is quite extensive. If money is your interest, visit psychotherapy finances, they currently have survey results listing what different managed care groups are paying for individual therapy. Consumers would likely find NAMI ( the National Alliance for the mentally ill) a good site to visit. Many of the sites also have resource sections which will lead to other areas on the net. My intent is that this list will provide a good broad base for exploring this topic.

Documents

Cost of Depression

This was found at internet mental health. It was taken from the Harvard Mental Health Letter. It focuses on the costs associated with a depressive disorder. It cites over 55% of the cost (some 24 billion as of 1994) is due to absenteeism and lowered productivity among the depressed in the work force. They estimate 72% of those that are depressed are working. It argues the cost of treatment by providing medical benefits which includes mental health, can be far less in the long run than the cost of ignoring the problem. It speaks out to providers, consumers, and bussiness owners.

Crisis intervention

This article came from psychotherapy finances. It is about managed care's interest in crisis intervention. It is a means by which some hospitalizations can be avoided. It should be a stronger focus in the future for mental health agencies to provide the least restrictive, and least costly care. It cites some currently successful programs what they do, and how they are currently paid. It is of interest mainly to providers in administrative capacities.

Managed Care Strategies

This was also found at psychotherapy finances. The article asked a panel of managed care consultants and providers what they thought about the future of behavioral health and managed care. It discusses health care reform, capitation, and outcome measures. It also speculates about which professionals will be left standing when this is all over. It's intended audience is providers, to help them plan strategies for the future.

Perspectives:Damaged Care

This was found at Mental health net. The article describes the case of a young man who commited suicide that had been in treatment under managed care. It contains some information reported by an employee of mental health managed care who did gatekeeping. The employee reports having to make diagnoses with no clinical training or education, or former work experience in mental health. It speaks out about the failings of some managed care groups. It's intended audience could be providers, or consumers.

Why Managed care hurts you

This is from Grohol's mental health page. It was written by John Grohol. It is a sarcastic, somewhat angry discussion of the limitations some managed care groups place on the consumer. It is addressed to the consumer with a plea for them to speak out to their insurers and to congress about "this awful system".

WV Case / Forcast/ Impact: M Care

These are three brief articles found at the NAMI site. The first relates information about a court case in Virginia that found a managed care group guilty of discrimination against people with mental illness ( a landmark decision) because they covered psych treatment at lower levels than traditional medical care. The second article talks about the move to bring medicaid under managed care. It has a rough checklist of things to look for when state proposals are discussed. The third article discusses the impact of managed care on the mental health system. It sites the problem of dumping the most severely ill into the public system of care to avoid costs. It is a call for caution in this changing enviornment. It's audience would be providers or possibly consumers.

Sites

Grohol Mental Health Page

This site is actually more than a page. It is more like a journal of sorts. It contains information of interest to consumers as well as professionals. It is a shoot from the hip type of format, quite informal. The current page had 2 articles regarding managed care, one a view from a consumer and one a veiw from Dr. Grohol. It is an interesting site. It encourages interaction, and was kind of fun to browse. I would rate it 3 stars, it is worth a look if you are at least as interested in mental health as you are in managed care.

Internet Mental Health

This site is from Canada. It contains information about psychiatric disorders, medications, and has a magazine. It also has an area to connect with other sites on the net. The magazine area had a few articles relating to the cost of various disorders, and so was of interest with regard to how these costs might interface with managed care. The articles mostly were from the Harvard Mental Health Letter and were pretty dated. It also has a feature called website of the month which could lead to other sources of info. It could be worth a look if you have the time to spare. It is pretty user friendly, I rate it 2 stars for the effort it makes,.

Mental Health Net

This location covers a variety of topics related to mental health including managed care. It is quite large and contains many features of interest. It is organized primarily with areas being classified into rooms. There are buttons on the bottom of each page which corresponds to the various rooms. There of course, is a home page, a reading room , professional, administrative, and self help resources, a calendar, an area for questions, a search feature, and feedback room. They do ratings of some of the web pages on a scale of a half to four stars, so you can weed out what's not in your interest. One of the current features is a managed care glossary which is quite extensive. It gets 5 stars from me for the wealth of content and excellent organization.

National Alliance for Mental Illnesis

This is the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. It contains information about many aspects of mental health, including managed care. It provides book reviews, gives information about confrences, updates on disorders and illnesses, medications, and research in the field. It also contains information regarding policy changes and what's new in Washington related to mental health. It also contains connections to other sites on the web that are related and may be of interest. It's audience is truely both the mental health professionals, and the consumers of mental health services. It is not as easy to jump from one area to another from any given page, as some other web sites are. For this I rate it 4 stars . It has alot of good information, and can provide connection with other sites that contain additional information of interest.

Psychotherapy Finances

This is a smaller site, but with some interesting information regarding managed care. They have currently a publication called Managed Care Strategies which is entirely dedicated to helping behavioral health professionals deal with managed care. They even did a survey which is included that contains fees being paid by managed care groups for individual therapy. Make no bones about it, this site is about money in the area of mental health so it is a must see if your interest is in who is going to be paying for what in the future. It's target is professionals, not consumers. It is not large, as I said before, so it is relatively easy to go through. It also has a button on almost every page which asks if you want more information. This leads to a place where you can request more info in your area of interest to be sent to you. I give it 4 stars for the high concentration of information on the topic of managed care in mental health.