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Third‐party fee for service in children's mental health: Limitations and suggestions
Author(s) -
Taplin Julian R.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(198701)15:1<78::aid-jcop2290150110>3.0.co;2-c
Subject(s) - reimbursement , payment , mental health , fee for service , incentive , intervention (counseling) , service (business) , contingency , perspective (graphical) , business , public relations , psychology , medicine , nursing , marketing , psychiatry , health care , economics , political science , finance , computer science , economic growth , linguistics , artificial intelligence , microeconomics , philosophy
The current third‐party fee‐for‐service mode of reimbursement for mental health services emphasizes individual, pathology‐oriented intervention and thus has disadvantages for clients and carriers. This article focuses on the mode's effects on outpatient services for children, youth, and families. It examines the ways in which common payment modes seriously limit services and create an incentive for psychologists to take a narrow, often nonempirical, perspective. Suggestions that allow for multisystem, ecological skill building hinge on building relationships between psychologists and the carriers. Desired results take two forms: modification of contingencies between providers and carriers and modification of contingency between insured and carrier. Examples of each are presented.