Health Policy Commons^™

Medicare, Managed Care, And Behavioral Health Care, Sara J. Rosenbaum, Barbara Markham Smith

Health Policy and Management Issue Briefs

This issue brief examines Medicare and managed care for Medicare beneficiaries with behavioral health needs. Although only a relatively small proportion of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in managed care arrangements at the present time, proposals to expand the use of Medicare managed care can be expected to receive a good deal of attention in the coming years as part of a larger debate over Medicare's long term future. Thus, this issue brief examines the Medicare+Choice (M+C) program from the perspective of Medicare beneficiaries with mental illness and addiction disorders.