ABSTRACT
Private psychiatric and substance abuse facilities enjoyed rapid growth in the 1970s and 1980s, but the prognosis for the 1990s provides a stark contrast. Managed mental health care’s (MMHC) firms have dramatically affected the industry, as noted by the rapid disappearance of traditional 28-day substance abuse programs. M. D. Strickler believes successful psychiatric hospitals need to provide an array of services starting with evaluation and emergency treatment, and including outpatient services, residential care, and partial day programs. Assuming the MMHC firm and the inpatient facility agree on standards of care, the parties should review the benefit plans of the groups to whom the MMHC firm provides services. MMHC companies also must share, clinical care guidelines, demonstrating to facilities that their Utilization management decisions are based on measured, objective clinical data. Traditionally, hospitals have developed specialty programs designed to capture referrals of certain types of populations. Many hospitals have started partial hospital programs for both their psychiatric and substance abuse populations.
