Eating Disorders - fieldi

8
Eating Disorders and
Managed Care
inge s. ortmeyer
Managed care is a new factor in treatment considerations. Although
medical treatment has always been attached to and/or predicated on
payment, there have not always been regulations and approvals for
care imposed by nonmedical sources. This phenomenon of corporate-driven
care becomes a dynamic. In the best possible light, new
and effective care may emerge within predetermined time parameters;
but in the dimmer light are those patients who, because of
restrictive limitations, receive partial or no treatment and thus do
not recover. In our book, in which we discuss “new directions,” it
seemed essential that we note a factor that affects both patient and
therapist. Inge Ortmeyer offers an overview in this chapter, raising
some of the relevant issues that inevitably occur.
Barbara P. Kinoy, Editor
The nineties have witnessed a dramatic and revolutionary transformation
of health care in the United States. In the wake of the public’s
rejection of President Clinton’s proposals for universal health care
and the single-payer model in the early nineties, there has been a radical
takeover of health care by large corporate interests who consider
health care a product and are driven by the demand for profits.
Managed behavioral health care is marketed as offering early