Legislating Managed Care
Wednesday July 12, 2006
Managed care continues to have a chilling effect on mental health treatment in the United States. Many therapists are required to complete lenghty paperwork after every few sessions of psychotherapy in order to request "authorization" for additional sessions. Companies claim to offer a benefit (such as 20 sessions per year) but aggressively manage these so that many ot the sessions are not authorized. The Pennsylvania Psychological Association has drafted legislation that will restrict this process in that state.
The Pennsylvania bill will limit insurerers and managed care companies to a single authorization per treatment episode. A "new episode" will start if the person has not been in treatment for 6 months.
Source: The National Psychologist, July/August 2006.