I work in the mental health field. Medicaid/Medicare is cutting back and moving to a MLTSS (Managed Long-Term Service and Supports) model to meet the expensive demand of long-term mental health clientele (Psychiatry, Case Management, Therapy, Mental Health Skill Building, etc.). In this Medicaid/Medicare benefits for people with mental health disabilities (including intellectual disabilities) will be privatized to corporate insurance companies. To summarize what that means to mental health providers, your business will only be reimbursed through quantifiable improvements the client makes.
From a business model it stands to reason. Tax payers are paying billions of dollars a year for mental health services for clientele that is not improving. When you look at the ideological and practical side of SMI (Serious Mental Illness -- Schizophrenia, Bipolar, Delusional Disorders, etc), you would understand that progress is minimal on their best day, and relapse is inevitable. The long-term effects of this could be a decline in reimbursement for state and private mental health agencies, an overall decrease in available services, decline in socio-economic change (increased poverty, substance use, violence, crime, and homelessness), increased psychiatric hospitalization (which costs tax payers around $8,000/day), job loss for mental health employees, and a spike in government assistance programs. It may even require a return to long-term state run psychiatric hospitals.
