The Psychotherapist's Guide to Cost Containment How To Survive and Thrive in an Age of Managed Car

by Bernard D. Beitman

• ISBN13: 9780803973817
• ISBN10: 0803973810
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-02-12
• Publisher: Sage Publications

Summary

'Provides a useful insight into the revolution that has taken place in psychotherapy practice in the United States' - Michael Maltby, The Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and PsychotherapyIn an age when psychotherapists are subjected to cost-saving measures which run counter to their wish to optimize care for their clients, this book is particularly timely. After chapters on the mechanics of cost containment and the clash between cost containment and client care, the author shows practitioners how to live with the enemy and to provide psychotherapeutic care in these adverse circumstances.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix	(4)
Acknowledgments	xiii
Section I: COST CONTAINMENT	1	(46)
Chapter 1: Tools of Cost Containment	3	(20)
Benefit Plan Designs	4	(3)
Utilization Review, Management, and Reporting	7	(2)
Referral Management Through Gatekeepers	9	(3)
Provider Payment Schemes	12	(2)
Quality Management of Providers	14	(3)
Organizational Structures	17	(6)
Chapter 2: Mental Health, Inc.: A Fictional Behavioral Health Care Company	23	(8)
Chapter 3: Payers, Providers, and the Evolution of Managed Care	31	(16)
Businesses and Government Seek Cost Containment	31	(3)
The Major Payer Groups	34	(5)
Health Care Professionals Seek Profit Too	39	(1)
The Health Care Workforce	39	(4)
The Evolution of Managed Care: Managing Costs, Care, or Health?	43	(4)
Section II: THE CLASH BETWEEN COST CONTAINMENT AND CLIENT CARE	47	(24)
Chapter 4: Ethics of Client Care Under Cost Containment	49	(10)
The Moral Intent of Health Insurance	49	(3)
Compromising Confidentiality	52	(1)
Therapists as Double Agents	53	(3)
Population Versus Individual Care	56	(3)
Chapter 5: Effects of Cost Containment on Therapists, Practice, and Training	59	(12)
Practitioner Reactions to Managed Care	59	(2)
Time-Effective Attitudes	61	(1)
New Self-Instructions for Therapists	62	(1)
Influence of Cost Containment on the Process of Psychotherapy	63	(5)
Effects of Cost Containment on Training	68	(3)
Section III: WHAT PSYCHOTHERAPISTS CAN DO FOR THEMSELVES AND THEIR CLIENTS	71	(72)
Chapter 6: Confronting Key Problems for Psychotherapy	73	(22)
The Efficacy and Cost-Effectiveness of Psychotherapy	73	(2)
Threats From Outside Psychotherapy	75	(4)
Threats From Inside	79	(5)
The Place of Psychotherapy in the American Health Care System	84	(11)
Chapter 7: Participation in Systems Outside Psychotherapy	95	(12)
Fit Behavioral Health and Medicine/Surgery Together	95	(2)
Self-Help Groups	97	(2)
Political Actions to Consider	99	(8)
Chapter 8: Reinvent Yourself, Again	107	(26)
Involve Your Clients in the Process of Dealing With Managed Care Companies	107	(1)
Think Like a Businessperson	108	(1)
Learn How to Evaluate Managed Care Contracts	109	(5)
Join or Create a Group or Network	114	(3)
Question the Necessity of Insurance Companies and Managed Care Companies	117	(1)
Use Psychotherapy Change Strategies to Help Yourself Adapt to Managed Care	118	(2)
Be Flexible, Diversify, and Consider Alternatives	120	(6)
Look to the Technological Future-Electronic Management Systems	126	(1)
The Only Constant Is Change	126	(7)
Chapter 9: Psychotherapy in the 21st Century	133	(10)
Psychotherapy Policy Outlines Outcomes	134	(1)
Outcomes, Outcomes, Outcomes	134	(2)
Predicting Outcome	136	(1)
Dismantling and Reassembling the Psychotherapy Machine	137	(1)
Redefining Psychotherapy	138	(1)
Psychotherapy and Pharmacotherapy: Different Means to the Same End?	139	(1)
Talking With the Case Manager Is Not Enough	140	(1)
A Very Positive Future for Psychotherapy	141	(2)
References	143	(10)
Index	153	(8)
About the Author	161