October to December Disarray - Behavioral Health, Insurance, 2015 Redesign
Medicine

October to December Disarray - Behavioral Health, Insurance, 2015 Redesign


Frontliners hang in there! It is indeed a tough time for 40% of Americans and those who attempt to care for them. Further deteriorations in access mean difficult times for primary care, emergency rooms, mental health facilities, and urgent cares. The end of this year brings new changes.

In the Arizona media there has been discussion about increasing behavioral health presentations to hospitals. I spared the link due to the usual excessive advertising. But after all, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

The Report from Arizona East Valley ERs and Urgent Cares

Mental health issues are being multiplied at the current time. Even though there is the potential for more care, the factors driving increases in mental health problems are up, access appears up (insurance) but is in decline (workforce changes), and there is even less ability to "fix" the problems. 
It is hard to clear behavioral health as it just recycles and spreads without being addressed. This results in multiple visits to places who are unable to address behavioral health, and more side effects.
Most of the above are specific to ER and urgent care. Primary care is dealing with insurance changes, cuts from insurance plans, changes in fees and coding, the usual delays, no increases in payment by federal design, threats of cuts, higher costs of delivery, increasing dissatisfaction from ever higher expectations, and patients ever more confused and forced into more changes.

For emphasis - There are three times as many urgent cares in the east valley in the past 2 years plus increases in retail care. Despite this, they all appear to have stable to increasing volume. More urgent cares and high tech designs are on the way.


Open Season Upon Small Health Care

Continue on to Open Season on Small Health By Big Media

Summary of Small Health Complexities

How To Resolve Health Access for 40 States Behind By Design

Preventing Rural Workforce By Design

Starting to Solve Societal Inequities - Support for a SMART Start from the Very Beginning of Life

Perverse Health Payment Dividing US - More for Fewer and Less for More, and Penalties for Those Caring for Those Most in Need

Global Fails Local But Local Focus Succeeds Globally

Domino Decline By Design - as ERs Close, Those Nearby Face Challenges, as Small or Rural Hospitals Close or Practices Where Needed...

Declines in Health Care Delivery Despite Increases in Health Spending - If We Keep Accelerating Non-Delivery Costs, We Can Continue to Remain Behind Health Care Demand

Best of Basic Health Access

Blogs indicate that primary care can be recovered and should be recovered.

Robert C. Bowman, M.D.        [email protected]

Basic Health Access Web    Basic Health Access Blog   World of Rural Medical Education
Dr. Bowman is the North American Co-Editor of Rural and Remote Health. He was the founding chair of the Rural Medical Educators Group of the National Rural Health Association and the long term chair of the STFM Group on Rural Health.




- The Government Control Card Still Plays Well
The Politifact Lie of the Year in 2010 was awarded to the term "Government Takeover." Government Takeover or Government Control in various forms emerged from Republicans, health insurance association consultants, and certain media outlets. A brief attempt...

- Rotten Apples, Rotten Support, Or Rotten Media?
America's teachers reached the cover of Time Magazine recently, but not in a favorable light. The response of teachers is recorded:America’s teachers are not rotten apples, as Time’s cover suggests, that need to be smashed by Silicon Valley millionaires...

- What Health Insurance Corporations Do
When given a chance to operate the entire payment package, what do Health Insurance Companies (HICs) do? For the past 8 years HICs have been given the freedom to operate Medicare Advantage - the high prestige seniors plan from CMS. HICs helped design...

- Will Small Health Make The News Long Enough To Matter?
It is about time that Small Health Care received some attention as the small hospitals and small practices, but will this continue. Off and on over past decades, primary care has received much attention, but the attention has not resulted in changes in...

- Too Many And The Wrong Clinicians
Expansions of clinicians are out of control. There appear to be no obstacles to accelerating numbers of clinicians. This is the result of more sources of clinicians plus expansions in US MD, US DO, Caribbean, non-citizen international, nurse practitioner,...



Medicine








.