Guilford Press Publishes Special Issue on ACA and Parity

On September 11, 2014, the Guilford Press, publisher of Psychodynamic Psychiatry, released a “Special Issue on Psychotherapy, the Affordable Care Act and Mental Health Parity: Obstacles to Implementation.”  The Special Issue is of substantial psychiatric and public health relevance, observing an area that requires sustained attention and action from the mental health community. Guilford Press will make the attached Special Issue available online at no charge to the public for the next two months.

The Special Issue includes articles addressing insurance company practices that are not consistent with evidence-based treatment because of their conflicting cost priority—both in violation of the law and in contra-distinction to research and professional treatment guidelines.

The Special Issue also includes articles addressing the research data on the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy for the major psychiatric diagnoses and with special focus on the enormous challenge of the mental health needs of military service members and veterans, the current practice environment which confronts providers of psychotherapy, the impact on workers’ productivity of untreated psychiatric illness, and obstacles to the training of psychotherapy to residents in psychiatry.

Meiram Bendat’s article, “In Name Only?  Mental Health Parity or Illusory Reform,” leads the charge.