American Psychiatric Association Applauds Effort to End Medicare Discrimination

By inkblot
March 7, 2005

Today the American Psychiatric Association (APA) reiterated its strong support for ending a four-decades-long discriminatory practice of Medicare: forcing patients to pay higher out-of-pocket costs for outpatient mental health services than for other medical services. As part of the Mental Health Liaison Group (MHLG), the APA sent a letter to U.S. Reps. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) and Tim Murphy (R-Penn.), backing legislation the two members reintroduced in the House of Representatives today, the Medicare Mental Health Copayment Equity Act, which would phase out the practice over six years.

“It is simply unacceptable to compel patients who receive outpatient mental health services to pay 50 percent of the cost of their care out of their own pockets,” said APA Medical Director James H. Scully Jr., M.D., who helped initiate the letter. “Medicare patients receiving other medical care pay 20 percent. This is discrimination, plain and simple. Patients are the real winners under the bill introduced by Congressman Strickland and Murphy, and we applaud their efforts. Passage of this legislation is long overdue.”