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Outrage Over Medicare

Fort Myers, Fla

I have just finished reading the brief article "House Unanimously Backs Medicare Reform Bill" in the January 4 issue, and I am most dismayed at the bill’s shortcomings. While it is certainly wonderful that physicians charged with a crime related to Medicare billing will have some recourse, this legislation does nothing to address Medicare’s historic discrimination against people with mental illness.

The largest discriminator against psychiatric patients is the U.S. government through its Medicare program. That medically necessary psychiatric treatments are covered only at 50 percent is a blatant abuse and prejudice against beneficiaries with mental illness. This arbitrary reimbursement rate has been used as a weapon by private insurance companies for the last 35-plus years.

It is time that our patients finally get the medical coverage that they deserve. The burden placed on them through Medicare has been enormous, is illegal in my view, and needs to be stopped immediately.

Unless and until the U.S. government stops discriminating against psychiatric patients through Medicare, discrimination by others will never end. I think it would be in the best interest of psychiatry, our patients, and Psychiatric News to give more print to this major problem.

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