Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Georgia Is Skimping On Mental Health Care, Says Georgia Psychological Association

This story is from last year. I found it when I Googled Blue Cross/Blue Shield tonight looking to download an Outpatient Treatment Report form for a patient. Given the problems I've had recently had getting treatment re-authorized, I also downloaded a 50-page explanation of what Blue Cross/Blue Shield considers "medically necessary". You can read that for yourself here. I found it enlightening.

Because I am on their panel and neither wish to be tossed off it nor to have clients convicted by association, I'm not going to say anything more.

You can read the article for yourself as well:

Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Georgia Is Skimping On Mental Health Care, Says Georgia Psychological Association

Enjoy.

Haiti Earthquake: Stress Management Tips From The APA

Haiti Earthquake: Stress Management Tips From The APA

No time to blog it right now--just wanted to put the link up for you.

In which Dr. Wood attempts to work without Larry

Every single time I came through that door I wanted to say something to My Little Green Man. I never realized before how much and how often I talk to him. I missed him today!

Wonder what, if anything, that says about my mental health.

Unfortunately, business is booming

Just thought I'd share this:

Back in the early 1980s, Minneapolis psychologist Gary Schoener and colleagues wondered if the recession was affecting the mental health of people living in Hennepin County. "We were convinced there was a problem," said Schoener, then chairman of the Council on Mental Health Programs.

How right he was. The study revealed "personal adjustment problems showing up in all kinds of places. It was fairly clear that we were going to be seeing more of those things," he said.

Schoener is, again, seeing more of those things. "We're busier than ever...

We are, too. It would seem odd, given that money is the problem, that people would take on a new expense, like therapy. This is especially true, given that insurance coverage is not as good as it used to be.

Financially challenged companies are cutting back on health insurance coverage, or cutting out coverage completely. Deductibles and copayments are growing, too. "The standard percentage paid by the insurance company used to be 80/20," said licensed social worker Suzanne Harman. "Now it's 70/30 or 60/40."

I will reduce my fee periodically to accommodate a client out of work, and/or go to less-frequent scheduling of sessions, because if someone has lost a job or is teetering on the edge of bankrupty, it's the worst possible time to be out of therapy. But of course eventually that will put me in a bind, too.

And it's not just lower-income families who are affected ... "Families where the main breadwinner is in the mortgage and housing industry are just being killed by this. Therapy is a luxury for every family."

That worries Lesli Kramer, a psychiatrist in private practice in Eden Prairie.

"People, when they're struggling, get more and more immobilized," she said. "It's harder to pick up the phone, especially for those who have never been seen in the mental health system. There's still a stigma. Add economic barriers, and that takes it to another level entirely."

Amen, sistah.

Copyright (c) 2008, Star Tribune, Minneapolis

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Kite Runner

No, not that kind. The Swallow-tailed Kite!

Real unusual in our neighborhood, one showed up just north of my office over the weekend. So I left work in the middle of the day to run up the road and look at it. I rationalized that (1) it would be good for my mental health--certainly true--and (2) that anything that is good for my mental health is bound to be good for my clientele--possibly true.

This was unplanned. No scope, no map, didn't even have any extra camera gear (basics, you know, like a tripod?). But off I went. And sure enough, the Kite showed up a few minutes after I did. After soaring near the road for a few minutes and giving us several good views, it disappeared again.

I trudged up and down the road for a few yards in either direction, getting all hot and sweaty in the middle of my work day, no less, while the other birders jumped back in their truck and went on their merry way. Sensible people, that lot. I was just about to give up and go back to work when I saw the Kite pop up from behind some trees again.

I got so excited that I pulled over on the side of the road again and hopped out to try to get a photo. I was alternately looking at the bird through my binocs and trying to snap a shot off with my compact digital camera (never got one--this one was taken by another birder) when I felt something bite my ankle. I looked down and saw that I had been standing in a fire-ant hill for several minutes! So right after the LIFER! Dance, I did the Fire Ant Dance for the entertainment of passing traffic. My right foot had been smack in the middle of a mound the whole time: I was lucky only one of the little bastards had got onto me.

After that, the Kite left again and I did go back to work.

It's a beautiful, graceful bird. Its white is the purest white, its black pure jet. It soars, but then so do a lot of birds. What makes this one stand out to me is the way it swoops on bugs. When it snatches a meal off the top of a tree it does so with such grace and pin-point accuracy that it does not appear that the leaves even stir!

Great way to spend a lunch hour. I may even do it again tomorrow.