|
Attribute |
Type of Care |
|||
|
General Health Care |
Mental/Substance-Use Health Care |
|||
|
|
|
patient privacy and confidentiality, but more-protective state statutes take precedence. |
|
|
|
|
• |
The use of electronic health records, decision support, and other information technology (IT) applications is growing. |
• |
IT is less well developed and less commonly used for clinical care support. |
|
Workforce |
• |
Only physicians and certain advanced practice nurses generally are licensed to diagnose and treat. |
• |
A more diverse workforce is licensed to diagnose and treat, including psychologists, psychiatrists, other physicians, social workers, psychiatric nurses, marriage and family therapists, addiction therapists, and a variety of counselors with different education and certification requirements. |
|
Marketplace and insurance coverage |
• |
Private insurance and Medicare dominate purchasing. |
• |
State and local governments (including Medicaid) dominate purchasing. |
|
|
• |
Care is typically covered by insurance. Copayments are lower, and more visits/days of care are covered. |
• |
Insurance provides less coverage. Copayments are higher, and fewer visits/days of care and therapies are covered. |
|
|
• |
Non-M/SU specialty care is purchased under the same contract as primary care. |
• |
M/SU insurance coverage is purchased separately (“carved out”) from general health care. |
Compared with general health care, relatively few laboratory, imaging, or other physical findings can be used to diagnose mental illnesses or substance dependence.1 Accurate diagnosis instead relies primarily on clinical