TY - JOUR
KW - Behavioral Medicine/economics
KW - Delivery of Health Care, Integrated/economics/history
KW - Health Care Costs
KW - History, 20th Century
KW - History, 21st Century
KW - Humans
KW - Primary Health Care/economics
KW - Psychology
KW - United States
AU - N. A. Cummings
AU - W. T. O'Donohue
AU - J. L. Cummings
A1 - 
AB - There are two reasons why mental health, now more appropriately termed behavioral healthcare, is declining: (a) a lack of understanding among psychotherapists of healthcare economics, particularly the intricacies of medical cost offset, and (b) our failure as a profession to see the importance of behavioral interventions as an integral part of the healthcare system inasmuch as the nation pays for healthcare, not psychosocial care. This paper will briefly describe the rapid changes in the economics of healthcare during the past 75 years, including the post World War II enthusiastic espousal of psychotherapy by the American public which was followed by a precipitous decline as our outcomes research in behavioral care remained ignorant of financial outcomes, leaving it to the government and managed care to arbitrarily curtail escalating mental health costs. At the present time psychology is on the cusp of becoming part of the healthcare system through integrated behavioral/primary care, renewing the primacy of financial considerations such as return on investment (ROI) and medical cost offset, as well as an urgency that we avoid the mistakes that are emerging in some flawed implementations of integrated care.
BT - Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings
C5 - Financing & Sustainability
CP - 1
CY - United States
DO - 10.1007/s10880-008-9139-2
IS - 1
JF - Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings
N2 - There are two reasons why mental health, now more appropriately termed behavioral healthcare, is declining: (a) a lack of understanding among psychotherapists of healthcare economics, particularly the intricacies of medical cost offset, and (b) our failure as a profession to see the importance of behavioral interventions as an integral part of the healthcare system inasmuch as the nation pays for healthcare, not psychosocial care. This paper will briefly describe the rapid changes in the economics of healthcare during the past 75 years, including the post World War II enthusiastic espousal of psychotherapy by the American public which was followed by a precipitous decline as our outcomes research in behavioral care remained ignorant of financial outcomes, leaving it to the government and managed care to arbitrarily curtail escalating mental health costs. At the present time psychology is on the cusp of becoming part of the healthcare system through integrated behavioral/primary care, renewing the primacy of financial considerations such as return on investment (ROI) and medical cost offset, as well as an urgency that we avoid the mistakes that are emerging in some flawed implementations of integrated care.
PP - United States
PY - 2009
SN - 1573-3572; 1068-9583
SP - 31
EP - 39
EP - 
T1 - The financial dimension of integrated behavioral/primary care
T2 - Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings
TI - The financial dimension of integrated behavioral/primary care
U1 - Financing & Sustainability
U2 - 19137437
U3 - 10.1007/s10880-008-9139-2
VL - 16
VO - 1573-3572; 1068-9583
Y1 - 2009
ER -