AMHA - Privacy Issues
Loss of Privacy When Insurance Pays for Your Treatment
You may choose to have health insurance pay part of the cost of your mental health services; evaluation, counseling or psychotherapy. Insurance benefits usually are not paid until the insurance company or a “carve out” managed care organization (MCO) authorizes payment.
When you use your health insurance to help pay for psychotherapy, you must allow your therapist to give your problem a psychiatric diagnosis. You must also permit reports to the MCO about your treatment, about your progress during treatment, and about how you are functioning in many areas of your life; at work, in your family, and in your activities of daily living. All the reported information becomes part of the MCO’s records and will be included in your permanent medical record at the Medical Information Bureau, a national data bank. The information will be examined when you apply for life, disability or health insurance, and may be considered when you apply for employment, credit, loans, or a security clearance. You may be required to indicate that you were treated for a psychological condition and to allow access to this information. You may be denied insurance, employment, loan, or clearance or find your premiums for life or disability coverage are increased because of these records.
All insurance carriers claim to keep the information they receive confidential, and there are federal laws about health information release. The laws and ethics codes that apply to therapists are much more protective of your privacy than the rules that apply at present to insurance companies and MCOs. If you are concerned about who might see your records now or in the future, you should discuss this issue fully before you begin treatment and before any information is submitted to an insurance company or MCO. You should evaluate your situation carefully in regard to confidentiality. For some people and some problems, the privacy of communications to a therapist is absolutely essential. For others, their problems do not raise much concern about confidentiality. You should discuss insurance disclosure requirements with your therapist and perhaps review the disclosure forms before they are sent to your insurance company or MCO.
If you are concerned with these issues, you may have the choice of paying your therapist directly and not using your health insurance. This will create no record outside the therapist’s files. However, direct payment may not be possible if the therapist you choose is contracted with your insurance company or Managed Care Organization – such contracts usually deny therapists the right to negotiate payment privately with covered clients.
Privacy Petition
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The National Petition on Privacy is co-sponsored by |
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Open Letter to Mental Health Professionals
Re: National Petition To Strengthen Patient Confidentiality Protections Dear Colleague: Please join us in protecting psychotherapy clients against all attempts to reduce traditional guarantees of client confidentiality. Client privacy is a fundamental principle in building trust, and a foundation for all our clinical work. Recent changes in federal privacy rules challenge this fundamental principle. Corporate-medicine’s clinical practice guidelines, which require that records be kept for third party review, undermine privacy. In order to prevent further deterioration of patient rights, we offer the Licensed Psychotherapists Petition on Confidentiality – it supports maintaining strong patient confidentiality guarantees. In Colorado, a similar petition was effective in blocking erosion of patient rights. In 2000, The Colorado Board of Psychological Examiners proposed that all licensed psychologists be required to give every client a diagnosis, and keep records for every client in a manner reviewable by third parties. In response, an ad hoc committee of psychologists in Colorado developed a petition to object to such requirements. On short notice, 27% of all Licensed Colorado Psychologists supported the petition and blocked the proposed regulations. We don’t want to wait until the last minute – start now to prevent further erosion in patients’ rights. Please, take action: Sign the Licensed Psychotherapists’ Petition On Confidentiality. Thank you for upholding the privacy standards of your profession! |
Article by B. McDowell- outlines the rationale and need for this petition project.
Minimum Necessary Guidelines for Third-Party Payers for Psychiatric Treatment
American Psychiatric Association Resource Document
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