 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Donald Cherry, MS, Division of Health Care Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, 3311 Toledo Road, Room 3409, Hyattsville, MD 20782, 301-458-4762, ZGL7@CDC.GOV
The majority of mental health visits to ambulatory medical care settings take place in psychiatric offices, however, there have been few studies examining factors influencing time spent with a psychiatrist. The following study utilized the combined 1999 and 2000 date files from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey to examine patient, practice, and clinical factors that influence the mean amount of time (in minutes) a psychiatrist spends with a patient. Of particular interest was how the different components of managed care influence time spent with a patient.
Results from a linear regression indicated that visits where authorization was required by a third-party payer were 4 minutes shorter than visits were authorization was not required, and Medicaid visits were over 7 minutes shorter than visits where private insurance was the primary payment source. Psychiatrists who accepted HMO plans not defined as IPA spent 10 less minutes with patients. Taken together, these clinical and practice-level characteristics support the influential effects of managed care. Visits that were: (1) made by established patients, (2) where medications were prescribed, and (3) when psychotherapy was not performed were all shorter in duration when examined to comparable visits. Finally, visits to male psychiatrists were 6 minutes shorter than visits to female psychiatrists.
Learning Objectives:
Related Web page: www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/ahcd/ahcd1.htm
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.