Report Urges Addressing Barriers to Reimbursement for Mental Health Care

Abstract

STATE AND FEDERAL REIMBURSEment policies create barriers that prevent many primary care physicians from offering screening and intervention for mental disorders, despite growing evidence suggesting such efforts by frontline clinicians may reduce the burden of mental illness in the United States, according to a recent report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The report provides an overview of the challenges physicians face in trying to bill for mental health services and recommends steps that federal and state agencies can take to make the process easier (http://download.ncadi.samhsa.gov/ken /pdf/SMA08-4324/SMA08-4324.pdf). The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services provided technical guidance to the group that drafted the report. Physician organizations applaud the report’s call to overcome barriers to compensation for mental health services and its emphasis on providing incentives for offering evidence-based care. Some caution, however, that the recommendations will do little to alleviate reimbursement problems stemming from an underfunded system, and that they will do nothing to improve reimbursement for mental health specialists, who, like primary care clinicians, also face substantial barriers to being paid for providing care.