Managed care is a revolution impacting the practice of clinicians throughout America. The Clinician’s Guide to Managed Behavioral Care, called “a survival kit” and “must reading,” helps clinicians develop and market professional services attuned to the needs of managed care systems, manage the utilization process, and reshape an office practice or hospital-based program to become more “managed care friendly.” It is newly referenced and updated for clinicians to continue to advocate for their patients and clients.The Clinician’s Guide to Managed Behavioral Care addresses how clinicians can develop and market professional services attuned to the needs of managed care systems, how to best manage the utilization review process, how to re-shape an office practice or hospital-based program to become more “managed care friendly,” and how to best advocate for patients and clients. Readers will understand the history and evolution of attempts to manage mental health care costs and services as well as the emerging clinical, economic, and social trends that will continue to fuel changes in the mental health field in coming years. Importantly, this guide sensitizes readers to the perspectives about mental health care benefits and the treatment field held by the payor community--insurance carriers, HMO’s, and self-insured employers. It allows readers to consider a payor’s view of how professionals can play a crucial role in providing quality services while helping control spiraling mental health care costs--costs that have escalated much faster than other segments of health care.Who can benefit from this book? Practicing psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, substance abuse counselors, marriage and family therapists, Employee Assistance Professionals, psychiatric nurses, professional counselors, program managers, hospital administrators, and health care marketing professionals will find The Clinician’s Guide to Managed Behavioral Care and invaluable resource.It is often said that in the future, all in the treatment community will be involved in “managing care” and that the most successful clinicians and practices will be those most adept at working with managed care systems on behalf of their patients and clients. This book helps you understand how!Important topics in The Clinician’s Guide to Managed Behavioral Care: the changing marketplace for mental health/substance abuse treatment services assessing market opportunities in light of managed care influences clinical service needs of managed care systems clinical innovations: examples, case studies, vignettes strategies for managing utilization review marketing strategies for office-based practitioners hospital-managed care partnerships contemporary office management strategies to control costs consumers and managed care directory of America’s HMOs directory of America’s Managed Mental Health Care Companies glossary of key terms

Managed care is a revolution impacting the practice of clinicians throughout America. The Clinician's Guide to Managed Behavioral Care, called "a survival kit" and "must reading," helps clinicians develop and market professional services attuned to the needs of managed care systems, manage the utilization process, and reshape an office practice or hospital-based program to become more "managed care friendly." It is newly referenced and updated for clinicians to continue to advocate for their patients and clients.The Clinician's Guide to Managed Behavioral Care addresses how clinicians can develop and market professional services attuned to the needs of managed care systems, how to best manage the utilization review process, how to re-shape an office practice or hospital-based program to become more "managed care friendly," and how to best advocate for patients and clients. Readers will understand the history and evolution of attempts to manage mental health care costs and services as well as the emerging clinical, economic, and social trends that will continue to fuel changes in the mental health field in coming years. Importantly, this guide sensitizes readers to the perspectives about mental health care benefits and the treatment field held by the payor community--insurance carriers, HMO's, and self-insured employers. It allows readers to consider a payor's view of how professionals can play a crucial role in providing quality services while helping control spiraling mental health care costs--costs that have escalated much faster than other segments of health care.Who can benefit from this book? Practicing psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, substance abuse counselors, marriage and family therapists, Employee Assistance Professionals, psychiatric nurses, professional counselors, program managers, hospital administrators, and health care marketing professionals will find The Clinician's Guide to Managed Behavioral Care and invaluable resource.It is often said that in the future, all in the treatment community will be involved in "managing care" and that the most successful clinicians and practices will be those most adept at working with managed care systems on behalf of their patients and clients. This book helps you understand how!Important topics in The Clinician's Guide to Managed Behavioral Care: the changing marketplace for mental health/substance abuse treatment services assessing market opportunities in light of managed care influences clinical service needs of managed care systems clinical innovations: examples, case studies, vignettes strategies for managing utilization review marketing strategies for office-based practitioners hospital-managed care partnerships contemporary office management strategies to control costs consumers and managed care directory of America's HMOs directory of America's Managed Mental Health Care Companies glossary of key terms

Provides an overview of how managed mental health-care systems work, how managed care is reshaping the private mental health/substance abuse treatment delivery system, its implications for clinicians everywhere, and how clinicians may work with, not against, managed care.

The second edition of Clinician's Guide to Evidence-Based Practices is the concise, practitioner-friendly guide to applying EBPs in mental health.

For both patients and providers, the words managed care are loaded with negative connotations, synonymous with inefficiency and bureaucracy. Forced to perform a delicate balancing act of offering the best possible care for their clients while carefully adhering to various managed care policies and procedures, providers in particular often wince at the prospect of having to deal with managed care companies, or MCOs. Fearing burdensome paperwork, low reimbursement rates, and denials of care, it's not surprising that a number of mental health professionals choose to limit their involvement with managed care companies-or eliminate it altogether. "My clients are all on different health plans; how can I keep the policies straight?" "Getting services approved is so time-consuming that I'm better off accepting only self-paying clients, aren't I?" "Do the benefits of working with MCOs really outweigh the drawbacks?" The answer, according to two industry insiders, is yes. If you know how to work with the system, the system can work for you. Mental Health Provider's Guide to Managed Care is the first handbook of its kind to offer clinicians a window into the inner-workings of MCOs. Authors Reich and Kolbasovsky candidly draw on their combined 37 years experience in the field to walk readers through all the major elements of how to successfully work within the system: marketing yourself and your practice to an MCO, getting onto a MCO's network, maintaining a good relationship and communicating with MCOs for quick service approval, reducing your liability, understanding your rights and responsibilities, getting paid, and more. Every issue—big and small—is covered, from capitation versus fee-for-service payment arrangements to evaluating which MCOs are a good fit to join, and everything in between. After explaining how to work with the system, the authors reveal how to put the system to work for you. Tips for building your practice through referrals, generating business through doctor collaboration, and understanding future practice opportunities are all covered.By demystifying the complexities of managed care and offering a unique, inside view of the process, this book mitigates the negative connotations associated with MCOs and exposes the hidden benefits of a seemingly burdensome process. Exceedingly reader-friendly and packed with insightful tips and vignettes, Mental Health Provider's Guide to Managed Care is one clinician's guide you won't want to be without.

How can behavioral health clinicians provide managed care in an ethical, professionally satisfying way while also dealing with managed care organizations (MCOs)? This concise yet powerful volume will jump-start clinicians in their search for effective answers. Unlike other managed care guides, which tend to view the clinician-managed care relationship as inherently adversarial, this groundbreaking pocket guide (another in American Psychiatric Publishing's Concise Guides series) views resource management as a basic function -- indeed, an ally -- of ethical clinical practice. True managed care both improves the quality of clinical care and protects community resources. It even stimulates patients to become more active managers of their own care. The author, speaking from extensive first-hand experience as both network provider and MCO administrator, asserts that clinicians must know how to manage care themselves to effectively persuade insurance companies to pay for treatment. Toward that end, the author details the practical tools clinicians need in just five chapters: Chapter 1, Managing Care Ethically, discusses basic principles and methods for making clinical decisions about behavioral health care when resources are limited and methods for communicating these decisions to patients and MCOs. Chapter 2, Managing Nonacute Care, applies the principles and methods from Chapter 1 to providing non-acute, usually outpatient, services. Chapter 3, Managing Acute Care, applies the principles and methods from Chapter 1 to providing acute crisis or inpatient services. Chapter 4, Marketing to Managed Care Organizations, details strategies for negotiating contracts to often unreceptive MCOs who consider their networks full, showing how clinicians can enhance their market value by filling MCO needs. Chapter 5, Managing Utilization Review, offers insights on overseeing the clinical work of colleagues and shaping the health care system, assuming that care managers are professionally obligated to help patients receive the care they need and deserve without intruding on the clinician's role, and that the best management manages least, taking responsibility for efficient resource utilization and ongoing system improvement. This practical guide is more than just a handbook for successfully navigating MCO procedures and market dynamics; it also shows that the outcome of truly managed care can be just as satisfying and effective as care provided with infinite resources. Invaluable to clinicians in everyday practice, this remarkable guide with its unique insights, collaborative approach, and case examples will also find a wide audience among clinical administrators in private and public MCOs who train network clinicians and utilization managers.