Wednesday, January 03, 2007

New Year of health Care

We start another new year, and once again we have to deal with the changing landscape of which corporations are trying to make money by limiting our services, confusing our clients, or creating obstacles for us to work.

From about 1985 until 2002 new companies kept emerging and branching off. HMOs, PPOs, and other big health care corps began to close the market. Then carve out "mental health companies" began to sub-contract with those. Companies such as UBH Magellan, and Options among many others, sold their services to the big general health care corps.

Over the last five years, as if finally became clear that managing mental health care was not saving any money, the companies began to cannibalize each other. They would buy up one another, or sub-contract with someone else, or merge, or sub-sub-contract. Each time they did this they would change the rules of operation. Surveys of patient health are now getting more popular, and re-authorizations every four sessions is fading out. But that is only true with some companies, and it is not true of the same companies that it was last year.

So in addition to working with A/s panic attacks, B's divorce, C's drinking, D's Drugging, the death of F's father, G's court case, H's feelings of worthlessness, I's rejection by her new lover, J's rejection of her new lover, K's total isolation and, of course, the holes they put in L's boots! I have to figure out for whom I have to request sessions, to whom the request goes, where the bill goes, how much they will pay, how much the client pays, and mainly, why it has to be like this.

Until the American people realize they are paying a lot of money so that many people who do sales and marketing can get rich, while access to and the actual providing health care becomes scarce and difficult, we will continue to become a sicker and poorer nation.

The main priority of America has always been to make money. The price we all pay to join that lottery has become very dear.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I pray you have a secretary. If not, hire one!

Jamie said...

Amen, brother! It will be a grand day when healthcare in America moves back to taking care of the sick.

TGS said...

"I pray you have a secretary. If not, hire one!"

That was mine! I forgot to log in!

Amanda said...

And what's even sadder, countries with a much better healthcare system actually want to emulate the US.

Politicians, er...people forget why a good healthcare/welfare system became necessary in the first place. To busy lining up their pockets with tax-money and spending the rest on guns. Grrrrr. Ok...Rant over.