Business owners and their consultants benefit by creating strategies that reduce the cost of managing human resources. They also benefit by inventing clever phrases to create positive, illusory spins for those cost-management strategies. For example, “right-sizing” is a positive, illusory spin for terminating employees. “Managed behavioral health care” is a positive, illusory spin for terminating, denying, preventing and interrupting health care to employees.
Rather than being health care benefits, these cost-management tactics have the opposite effect. Administrative decisions that deny treatment are actually liabilities to employees, not benefits. Denying and preventing health care may benefit business owners; however, they do not benefit employees.
When you ignore this linguistic spin, it is easy to see that a decision to deny treatment is not a method for managing health care. It cannot be--by definition. When care is prevented or denied, there is no care to manage. In an IP Editorial, Lundeen (2006) pointed out that the phrase, “care managers,” is a lousy euphemism. Health care can be managed only when health care is delivered. Denying treatment manages employee costs, not employee care.
The mistaken phrase, “managed health care,” disguises the fact that cost-management companies do not win contracts for excellence in providing health care. Cost-management companies win contracts for excellence in lowering the cost of putting employees to work.
Cost-management companies lower costs in two significant ways. (1) Cost-management companies hire only those providers who willingly participate in administrative practices that deny, prevent, interrupt and terminate care. (2) Cost-management companies hire only those providers who work for low payment. These techniques manage costs, not care. Participating providers do not constitute “managed care panels.” They constitute cost-management panels.
Professionals who support cost-management companies can be expected to put a positive spin on tactics that deny and terminate treatment. Ironically, even professionals who object to cost-management companies use language that helps those companies to succeed. By thoughtlessly echoing the institutionalized phrase, “managed care,” opponents of cost-management companies maintain the illusory, positive spin that those companies actually manage care. They do not. They manage costs, not care.
Every time you utter “managed care organization,” “managed behavioral health care,” or “managed mental health care,” you perpetuate the deceptive spin that cost-management companies manage care. Each time you utter, “managed behavioral health benefits,” you connote that cost-management tactics actually provide benefits to employees. They don’t. They provide benefits to business owners, not to employees.
The institutionalized phrase, “managed behavioral health care,” misleads the public, employees, employers and legislators. And it handicaps the effectiveness of health professionals who object to the tactics used by cost-management companies.
Opponents of cost-management companies can become more effective by changing language. Align your thoughts and your words with your goals. Adopt language that accurately describes cost-management companies as managers of costs, not managers of care. Here are three specific ways that you can align your words with your goals:
When you describe cost-management techniques: Avoid the words “managed care” and “managed care benefits” when you describe administrative decisions that deny, prevent, interrupt, or terminate health care. Instead of “managed care,” speak and write the accurate phrases, “managed costs” and “cost-management techniques.”
When you describe cost-management companies: Avoid the words “managed care organization” when you describe a company that relies on techniques that deny, prevent, interrupt, or terminate the delivery of health care. Instead of “managed care organizations,” speak and write the accurate phrase, “cost-management organizations.”
When you describe cost-management personnel: Avoid the words “care managers” when you describe people who participate in decisions to deny, prevent, interrupt, or terminate the delivery of health care. Instead of continuing to use the lousy euphemism, “care managers,” speak and write the accurate phrase, “cost managers.”
You can practice your newly-aligned, accurate language in your thoughts, in your speech, in your publications and in your legislative initiatives. For greater effectiveness, alert your colleagues whenever they mistakenly utter “managed care” to describe the cost-management techniques of denying, terminating, interrupting and preventing treatment. Help them align their language with their goals by using the phrases “cost-management techniques” and “cost-management companies.”
Wallace Wilkins, Ph.D., serves as a Licensed Psychologist, Cognitive Therapist and DOT Substance Abuse Professional. For providers who deal with cost-management companies, his latest book is Please Hold: 102 Things To Do While You Wait On The Phone! Wally can be contacted at 206-284-1943, Success@Take-Risks.com, www.Take-Risks.com.
