Managed Care and Therapy

Definition of Managed Care and Trends in Managed Care

Managed care consists of diverse prepaid health plans or insurance programs in which enrollees receive medical services in a manner designed to eliminate unnecessary services and their attendant costs (Raffel & Raffel, 1994). A key factor in managed care that highlights it as radically different from the traditional doctor-patient approach to treatment is that cost-effectiveness goals increasingly involve health care purchasers (e.g., employers, government, insurance companies) in treatment decision-making---a fact that has lead to the charge that it is not maximal treatment that is the major concern in managed care programs for the ill in general and the mentally ill in particular but rather the minimization of treatment costs (Stanhope, 1994).

Given the foregoing, the question can be asked as to what constitutes maximal or optimal treatment decisions regarding the selection of psychotherapy models and modalities for mentally ill patients? In particular, it seems reasonable to wonder as to the viability of two major contemporary psychotherapy approaches to the treatment of the mentally ill, approaches that differ in structure, underlying theory, and treatment strategies. These are the approaches of psychoanalysis and behavioral therapy? Regarding the judgement of viability, three dimensions can be considere

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in randomized clinical trials, and the results then used to derive effective strategies for diverse age groups and types of mood and nonmood disorders. What is especially appealing about the therapeutic program is that it not only provides a short-term treatment approach but also an approach to use when patients require long-term care. However, the duration of treatment may not be a realistic concern when it comes to at least some mental conditions. By their very nature, some mental conditions require long-term treatment---a treatment modality which is not part of the behavioral approach which focuses almost exclusively on behavioral change over a period of weeks (Sue, Sue & Sue, 1994). Indeed, mental illnesses requiring long term care appear to be not only problematic for behavioral theory and practice but also for the managed care approach to mental health care in general. This point has been made by Petila (1995) who notes that when care is needed beyond that specified by pay reimbursement policy (and this occurs fairly often with severe mental illnesses) health care providers and health care payers are immediately placed in conflict in the managed care setting. In summary then, time constraints do not appear to be a m
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Lewin Sarfstein, Raffel Raffel, Sue Sue, Weissman Markowitz, Primavera Schultz, Considerations According, Sarfstein SS, Ill Managed, managed care, Glazer WM, Stanhope Lancaster, mentally ill, managed care setting, behavioral therapy, care setting, cost containment, health care, sue sue, treatment efficacy, mental illness, long-term care, sue sue sue, require long-term care, raffel raffel 1994, behavioral psychoanalytic therapies,
Approximate Word count = 1480
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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