CNN Article - Psychologists to Strike

[WisNeuro]

No one is private practice is losing money with a full caseload that is much smaller than what Kaiser (as an example) is doing. The overhead for any treatment at a large hospital is so high that traditional psychotherapy is not going to cut the mustard. Perhaps they need to rethink the infrastructure of mental health services rather than trying to make mental health fit into the same infrastructure as other health treatments.

Bigger problem is the failure of mental health parity laws and ever declining reimbursements. It's bad enough on the outpatient side, it's a disaster on the inpatient side. If a dept is going to be cut, it's going to be IP MH.

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[AcronymAllergy]

No one is private practice is losing money with a full caseload that is much smaller than what Kaiser (as an example) is doing. The overhead for any treatment at a large hospital is so high that traditional psychotherapy is not going to cut the mustard. Perhaps they need to rethink the infrastructure of mental health services rather than trying to make mental health fit into the same infrastructure as other health treatments.

Does Kaiser have inpatient care? If so, I believe that can be a money sink for hospitals. I agree that folks in private practice aren't going bankrupt, although having a 100% insurance-based (therapy) clinical practice seems to be getting to be more and more difficult. Restructuring would potentially make sense, so it probably won't happen.

Then again, Kaiser probably also has more negotiating power with insurance companies than your average PP psychologist/therapist.

But the fact the government keeps trying to cut Medicare reimbursement for therapy/non-medical MH codes year after year is not a good sign.

 

[DynamicDidactic]

They won't.

I am not saying they will but they wont until they will. This lawsuit (while unlikely for a single lawsuit but if there is a trajectory for continuous costs to hospitals) can lead to a situation that requires hospitals to change the system.

Bigger problem is the failure of mental health parity laws and ever declining reimbursements. It's bad enough on the outpatient side, it's a disaster on the inpatient side. If a dept is going to be cut, it's going to be IP MH.

Things would have to get worse before they get better.

 

[PikminOC]

I am not saying they will but they wont until they will. This lawsuit (while unlikely for a single lawsuit but if there is a trajectory for continuous costs to hospitals) can lead to a situation that requires hospitals to change he system.


Things would have to get worse before they get better.

Pls let me know when it's hit rock bottom