Mass. patients face long waits for behavioral health beds

The reviewers found that none of the non-behavioral health patients and 13 percent of the behavioral health patients spent more than 24 hours in the emergency room. In many cases, the reasons for delays were not well documented, and the record failed to give complete information about what happened to the patient when, officials say.

Officials describe one case of a patient who waited to get inpatient care while the patient or the patient’s family appealed a denial of admission to inpatient care. In some of the other cases, patients clearly had authorization for inpatient care from their insurers, but finding an available bed took more than a day. 

Private insurers’ use of emergency service treatment reviewers seemed to delay insurer admission decisions in some cases, but simply finding available, appropriate behavioral health beds was also a problem, officials say.

Because any non-behavioral health care sought was almost always in-network, the reviewers had a hard time comparing the effects of in-network utilization policies for behavioral health and non-behavioral health patients.

Officials note that leaving patients in need of emergency behavioral health care in emergency rooms for an extended period delayed the patients’ access to appropriate care and placed demands on the emergency room staff.

See also:Analyst: Mental parity hard to enforce