ABSTRACT
Practitioners and facilities have come to view Marketing Mental Health Services systems as placement or distribution channels for their services. Whether one is an individual mental health practitioner or a clinical manager of a large inpatient treatment unit, the costs of providing clinical services take two forms: fixed costs and variable costs. Costs of services relates very directly to pricing. Mental health practitioners have historically been unconcerned with examining their costs-price relationship, since prices for services are established along community norms. Group therapy is sometimes the treatment of choice for many patients. It is also a highly efficient use of managed care clinicians’ time and skills. Group practices offer inherent administrative, contracting, and marketing advantages to practitioners in addition to the clinical advantages offered to patients. Group practice is one important means of reducing costs while providing many clinical and operational benefits to clinicians.
