Psychiatry and the fiscal third party

Abstract

Third-party payment has profound effects on such areas of psychiatry as confidentiality; diagnosis; the therapeutic relationship; psychiatry's identification with the rest of medicine and the role of nonphysician mental health professionals; psychiatric education; and the availability, type, location, and quality control of treatment. As third-party payment becomes increasingly frequent, psychiatrists will have to come to terms with its good and bad effects in hospitals and community mental health centers as well as in private practice.