The Advantages Of Managed Care Behavioral Health Services

Managed care is a system of health care administration that is designed to do two things: control costs, and place health care decisions in the hands of experts rather than patients. These two concepts are not entirely unrelated. In terms of the mental health industry, these concepts become centrally important due to the impaired decision-making skills of the average patient. Both the National Institutes of Health and the Office of the Surgeon General have written substantially on this topic.

Lowers Costs

Managed care lowers costs, or, in the words of the Surgeon General, "removes overutilization" of the health care system. The National Institutes of Health has both cited and performed studies that show this. The reason is clear: Managed care permits only what is necessary for the patient, not necessarily what the patient thinks he needs. Unnecessary hospitalization is often removed, and the shift is to outpatient care rather than the more expensive hospital stays. This is important in the mental health industry because hospital stays often exist only for observation, not actual treatment.

Cuts Overmedication

Overmedication is a common problem in the mental health industry since psychotropic medications are the most common treatment of mental disorders. Because managed care seeks to minimize the extent of treatment relative to the health problem, overmedication is less of an issue, as most of these medicines are very expensive. The simple fact that many problems can be treated with lifestyle changes and therapy rather than drugs shows that managed care can cut down on the amount of medications dispensed. Managed care is structured to look for those kinds of alternatives for the sake of controlling costs and cutting the overuse of medical facilities.

Improves Access

The RAND corporation has performed several studies that suggest managed care in the mental health field improves access. One reason for this is the successful controlling of costs under managed care. Additionally, the shifting of most mental health treatment to outpatient clinics has freed up money to assist the uninsured and those with few financial resources.

Improves Decision-Making

Mental disease can harm patients' ability to make any real decisions. Managed care truly comes into its own in the mental field because it lays out a standard procedure relative to the patient's symptoms. While patient activism might be important in other fields, the mental health field would be excessively hampered and overutilized if every patient was in full control of what they need, when and how.

Tags: mental health, health care, health industry, mental health industry, rather than, care system, controlling costs