Availability of Outpatient Child Psychiatric Care in the US During the COVID-19 Pandemic
What is it about?
To ascertain the post-pandemic availability of outpatient child psychiatric appointments in three major U.S. cities, researchers posed as the parents of a 10 year-old child who was depressed and used a Blue Cross Blue Shield database to call child psychiatrists in 3 major US cities seeking an appointment utilizing 3 types of payment. The database was replete with wrong numbers and practices that were full, and researchers were only able to secure appointments 10.6% of the time. Although it was more difficult to obtain an appointment when trying to use Medicaid, obtaining outpatient appointments with child psychiatrists in these cities was very difficult, irrespective of payer. These results are concerning given mental health crisis among youth that the pandemic has caused.
Why is it important?
These results confirm what many already know: in the midst of a mental health crisis, having insurance is not enough to guarantee access to mental health care when it is needed. In our study, many child and adolescent psychiatric practices were full; moreover, among those few psychiatrists who were accepting new patients, even fewer were willing to see patients with Medicaid. This finding is concerning and highlights the sad reality that those who are poor and hope to use public insurance are frequently denied mental health care. Because COVID-19 has disproportionately harmed racial-ethnic minority groups and those who are poor, our findings represent a double insult and a deepening inequitable access to care.