Opinion: Saving rural psychiatry services will require higher Medicaid payments
If there were ever to be an empty bed in the stress unit my psychiatrist dad manages, I’m certain he would admit himself. He runs the only private psychiatric practice in the rural Michigan town of Owosso and is the sole psychiatrist contracted at the local hospital. With approximately 1 in every 10 of the town’s 15,000 residents being a patient in his practice, he shoulders the responsibility for many more patients than most psychiatrists do. The issue isn’t confined to his town. Across the nation, half of the population resides in areas with an inadequate number of mental health professionals, and 65% of rural counties lack access to a psychiatrist entirely.
Why are so few psychiatrists working in rural areas? Medicaid is to blame. The majority of the patients my dad treats at the clinic are low-income and rely on the government-funded Medicaid program, which pays him between $60 and $70 per 30-minute visit, depending on the type of policy and care provided. Compare that to the up to $120 that private insurers pay. Because of this disparity, only 36% of psychiatrists accept new Medicaid patients, compared to 70% of physicians overall, prioritizing mental health care for privately insured patients with higher incomes.
