Policy and Structure in the U.S. Mental Health System: Who Benefits and Who is Harmed?

• In Event: 598 - Section on Sociology of Mental Health Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 10. Policy and Societal Context

Abstract

There is a call for change of mental health policy and structure in the United States due to national attention of significant acts of violence committed by individuals with a history of mental illness who had received inadequate mental health care. Through a multi-level qualitative analysis, the author examines the impacts of a the Health Information Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) on Medicaid versus non-Medicaid mental health care in one city, how the Act impacts each system, how system structure mediates or aggravates the barriers created by HIPAA, and which patient populations are helped or harmed as a result. By making HIPAA a non-issue through its organization, Medicaid patients receive more effective mental health care through increased provider communication and continuity of care than non-Medicaid insured patients. Considering the lower socioeconomic status of Medicaid patients, this is contrary to compensatory inversion in healthcare.

Author

• Tracy Deyell, University of Colorado-Boulder