Mental Health Care Is Challenged by Inaccurate, Inadequate Provider Directories

For patients to receive timely access to care and for providers to deliver that care on a similarly timely basis, the correctness of provider contact information is of utmost importance. However, the results of a new study on the accuracy of mental health provider directories and network adequacy, published in the February issue of The American Journal of Managed Care and online at AJMC.com, paint a less-than-stellar picture of these data, with implications for the ability of consumers to be able to use mental health care services when they need them.

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Simon F. Haeder, Ph.D., MPA, professor of public health at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, 1 of 3 authors of the article, “Provider Directory Inaccuracy and Timely Access for Mental Health Care.”

He and his co-investigators looked at the accuracy of directories of psychiatrists and nonphysician mental health providers for all plans regulated by the California Department of Managed Health Care in 2018 and 2019. Their goals were 2-fold: to decipher the accuracy of these provider directories in California and to see if consumers who need timely access to care can get it from these providers.