The author describes the three ways mental health services may be
provided in a health maintenance organization (HMO)--by an internal
department of psychiatry, by one or more unrelated external autonomous care
providers, or by an external autonomous group of providers. He proposes
that the latter type is the best model, offering many of the advantages of
the internal department while delivering more personalized, higher quality
care at lower cost to the HMO. However, certain conditions must exist,
including convenient location, regular conferences with other HMOR
physicians, and the provision of educational and preventive services, if
the superiority of this model is to be maintained.
Abstract Teaser