Product Description

A shocking investigative report on the state of the private mental hospital industry reveals the corruption, scandal, and costly malfeasance that has become rampant since hospitals started using marketing techniques to snare patients. 35,000 first printing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1757810 in Books
• Published on: 1994-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 294 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this powerful, scathing indictment, Sharkey ( Above Suspicion ) exposes profound venality and criminally actionable practices in today's psychiatric industry. He ascribes soaring medical health costs (more than $125 billion in 1991) to a conspiracy involving the biopsychiatric profession, for-profit mental and addiction facilities, drug and insurance companies. He further charges that many in the psychiatric profession have abandoned the severely mentally ill while private, investor-owned hospitals offer bounties of up to $1500 to clergy, teachers, police and "crisis counselors" for recruiting--one Texas legislator uses the term "body-snatching"--troubled adults, adolescents and children covered by insurance policies that pay up to $30,000 for inpatient care. In 1993, the fraud practiced by Medicare- and Medicaid-subsidized hospital chains such as National Medical Enterprises, with 86 psychiatric hospitals and revenues of $1.74 billion in 1991, was revealed by the FBI. The psychiatric industry, Sharkey warns in this chilling, well-documented account, is lobbying for a large slice of the health reform pie and continues to "create mental illness with advertising."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Journalist Sharkey (Above Suspicion, LJ 12/93) focuses on the abuses that developed in some large for-profit mental health hospital corporations throughout the 1980s. As an increasing number of health insurance providers began covering costs for in-hospital mental health treatment, some corporations exploited this coverage by basing admission and discharge decisions solely on insurance. Some hospitals used questionable or totally unethical marketing practices, going so far as to pay bounties to clergy, school personnel, and family counselors for referrals. A few of these corporations went bankrupt as legislatures and insurance agencies tightened control, but most continue to operate. Healthcare reform remains a hot topic, and Sharkey adds a piece to a much larger puzzle of what needs fixing in the healthcare field. For most public libraries.
Marguerite Mroz, Baltimore Cty. P.L.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Trenchant and lively expos‚ of the private mental-hospital business, full of attention-grabbing tales of despicable villains, chagrined confessors of misdeeds, brave whistle- blowers, and even some heroes of sorts. Names, dates, and places are all here. Investigative reporter Sharkey (Deadly Greed, 1991, etc.), his curiosity piqued and his ire raised by a brief personal encounter with a psychiatric hospital, takes a hard look at the abuses of such for-profit institutions. The provision of mental- health benefits by employers, now mandatory in many states, provided an irresistible opportunity for the psychiatric hospital business. Dominated by a few large chains with expansionist visions and aggressive marketing techniques, the industry boomed in the late 1980's, with the number of psychiatric hospitals more than doubling between 1984 and 1989. High-pressure advertising encouraged inpatient mental-health treatment for ordinary adolescent behavioral problems and run-of-the-mill emotional difficulties. Competition for patients with insurance coverage led to payoffs to clergy, family counselors, ans school and hospital officials; bonuses for psychiatrists willing to come up with appropriate diagnoses; misleading use of crisis hotline phone numbers; and even abduction of potential patients. Sharkey, who writes with a practiced reporter's directness, concentrates on marketing abuses, but he also gives a glimpse of common practices inside treatment centers: overmedication; therapy resembling punishment more than treatment; and discharge dates pegged to insurance expiration dates. The industry has promised reforms, but Sharkey notes that the basic problem remains: how to provide proper mental-health care in an atmosphere of profit incentives. An impossible-to-ignore alarm about one segment of the medical-industrial complex, timed perfectly for the year's big health care debate. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

The Corruption of Psychotherapy
This is a truly shocking book. In terms of content, it could be said that there is nothing new under the sun: the psychotherapy industry is greedy and corrupt. Plenty of writers from Masson onwards, have revealed to us the real motivating factors for many mental health professionals: greed and narcissism. But even the harshest cynic will be horrified by the details contained in this work. Thoroughly researched and beautifully written. Excellent.

Unparalleled wordsmithing at its best
Reviewer Charles Hannasch is correct in his observation about the swift publication of Sharkey's book. I am not aware that other books or publications of this story were hurt thereby. However I wish that Sharkey had interviewed me about some details since I'm the one who initially trained Sector One personnel on mental health emergency detention warrants and because of that involvement assisted (then State Senator) Frank Tejeda's office in the investigation.

In my own book, Enhancing Police Response to Persons in Mental Health Crisis, Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, 2003, I give some additional detail about the background of Sector One and the alleged kidnappers and ability in those days of civilians to execute mental health emergency detention warrants.

If he were to write a sequel or second edition Sharkey might note that quite rightly (at least in my view) all charges against the so-called "bad guys" were ultimately reduced to misdemeanor status.

Mr. Sharkey's account is well-told; his word-smithing skills unparalleled.

An fascinating view into the world of insurence fraud.
Joe Sharkey's view of the truth behind the medical insurance field is rivoting. I am proud to know this man