profession
Insured patients have trouble getting psychiatric care
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Aug. 1, 2011
Securing an appointment for psychiatric care is difficult even for privately insured patients, according to a study in the August Annals of Emergency Medicine (link). Researchers who posed as patients called psychiatrists' offices and claimed to have been evaluated in an emergency department and discharged with instructions to secure a psychiatric appointment within two weeks.
Of 64 Boston-area sites contacted, eight offered appointments and only four granted appointments within two weeks. Nearly a quarter of the sites said they could not grant an appointment without a referral from a primary care physician within their system. Fifteen sites did not return calls after two voice messages. The results show how managed care has limited patients' access to psychiatric care, researchers said.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/08/01/prbf0801.htm.