How Will State Budget Cuts On Mental Health Affect Mental Health Medication Management?
Mental health is emotional or physiological wellbeing. Mental health illnesses are depression, anxiety, PTSD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc. However, mental health is a taboo subject. In fact, there are many who believe that one can cure mental health without the help of
a psychiatrist or psychologist. Moreover, there are many who live in denial of mental illness. In such circumstances, state budget cuts seem to add more fuel to the fire. Let us understand these budget cuts and their impact on Mental Health Medication Management In detail in this blog.
What Is Mental Health Medical Billing?
Billing Services for Mental Health Providers consist of Billing Codes for Mental Health. The insurance company reimburses a psychiatrist for their services on the basis of the codes. The coders have a thorough knowledge of the Mental Health Code of Practice. These
codes are the basis for reimbursements from insurance companies.
Why Is the Mental Health Code Of Practice More Complex Than Medical Billing?
Psychiatry Medical Billing is much more complex than other medical billing. Below are a few major reasons why it is so:
Different Ways of Treatment
The methods of treatment by mental health providers are different. Some treat their patients with medicines while some
with therapy and meditation while others with both. This is quite different from medical billing where the work is more streamlined and standard.
Time Period of Treatment Not Fixed
The time doctors take to treat the patient is never fixed. Even though there are some insurance companies that limit the number of treatments in a week. It is not a standard format. On top of it, it is not so easy to determine mental health lengths as compared to medical
health. This leads to less remuneration or even rejection of the mental health-based claims.
Inability to Take Pre Authorization
It is very difficult to take preauthorization from patients because most of the patients that visit are out of network.
Insurance Companies Do Not Cover Patients Sufficiently
As per a 2019 blog of the National Alliance of mental health insurance companies do not cover mental health patients adequately. This makes Psychiatry Medical Billing more difficult to handle than regular medical billing.
Dearth of Staff
The usual norm is that medical practitioners have a staff that deals with the patient query and follow up with insurance companies for reimbursements, patients, and the medical coder if necessary. However, mental health practitioners usually work alone or in partnerships. Therefore they do not keep a lot of staff to handle such queries.
Limits on Service
What Is The State Budget Cut?
State budget cuts are a reduction of funds for providers of mental health. The reduction of State spending has started to influence the psychological medical care administrations in many states. As per a review, states have cut more than $1.6 billion in overall funds in the
financial years 2009 through 2012. This trend has continued since 2009 till date. Even in 2020, amid the pandemic, there was a cut on a youth program mental health. The state has also axed the budget for children’s mental health programs.
What Are The Effects Of State Budget Cuts On Mental Health Practitioners?
Due to economic depression, the budget kept for mental health care has been cut. That means the doctors will not get the actual amount for the services they provide. This means the doctor will have to incur the loss or the patient will have to bear the expenses. If the patient is not
in a position to bear the expenses he or she may avoid taking the treatment. In all the above three scenarios either the patient or provider is at loss.
How Can A Behavioral Health Biller Come To The Rescue?
The present circumstance is disturbing for mental medical services experts. It is so because they need to zero in on persistent consideration to get legitimate repayments from insurance companies. This is not their actual body of work. A Mental Health Billing Services provider is the fitting entity for this job. They can help them to get the claim payments from insurance companies with ease.
Why Choose Legion Healthcare as Your Mental Health Insurance Billing Partner?
Long and Successful Track Record of Work Legion health care has done Billing for Mental Health Services for a long period of time. That is why we have become one of the prominent Mental Health Insurance Billing Service providers.
Follow All Guidelines
Our Mental Health Billing Specialist makes sure to adhere to all the guidelines of HIPPA and other important laws that concern the mental health field.
Competent Charges
Our charges are very competent. We have done mental health billing for hospitals as well as newly come up mental practices.
Increase in Revenue
We help medical practices to get Reimbursement for Mental Health Services. On the other hand, the staff at the practices can focus on their core job to bring in more appointments and serve their patients better. All this leads to revenue growth for the mental health practice.