Managed care in mental health: the ethical issues

Abstract

Praise and blame of managed mental health care are on the rise on many fronts, including allegations that it could adversely affect quality of care, access to care, the physician/patient relationship, and informed patient choice. Given the heterogeneity among managed mental health care organizations--each with differing practices--it is difficult to sift the ethically defensible concerns from the indefensible ones. In this paper we identify and examine the different moral concerns about managed mental health care and mark which problems have been addressed or are in need of resolution. We also identify which problems are unique to managed mental health care.