The Managed Care Answer Book for Mental Health Professionals. - Review - book review

Adolescence, Spring, 2001

TUTTLE, Gayle McCracken, & WOODS, Dianne Rush. The Managed Care Answer Book for Mental Health Professionals. Bristol, PA: Brunner/Mazel, 1997. 152pp. $21.95 (p).

In The Managed Care Answer Book, Tuttle and Woods draw on their extensive experience to provide information that is at once up-to-date and down-to-earth: What happens when I get dropped from a managed care panel? How do I get paid? What is triangulation? Why do I get into trouble when I advocate for my client? Who will hold the managed care firms accountable? Will it be the government or mental health professionals? Must economic/business success determine quality of care? The book is an extended question and answer session where issues are tackled from the provider's perspective. The bottom line is how to find a place in the new delivery system that will afford effective, profitable practice. Armed with the resources, examples, and explanations provided in this book, clinicians will be better positioned to make the hard decisions that contribute to success under managed care.