Mental Health Clientele Payer Sources

Budgeting is critical for the success of any [financial] success of any organization. Budgets refer to financial documents that indicate the outlook of the organizations’ financial expenditure within a stipulated period, usually a year. Budgets could be total, organization-wide operating budgets, operating budgets for individual programs, activities, or units; capital budgets; cash flow budgets/ projections; opportunity budgets; or, zero-based budgets (Dropkin, Halpin, & Touche, 2007). Whichever the case, budgets are critical assets in mental health practices. Apart from the projected expenditure, the sources and types of income for a project are essential in a budget. They may have a considerable impact on a nonprofit organization’s budget and budgeting process compared to commercial firms. Examples of sources include unrestricted (the contributor or funding source do not limit its use to a specific purpose); contract or grant agreement funds (the income is often accompanied by a specific contract or grant agreements; and restricted contributions. Other sources include income from a trade or business activities, cash and noncash donations like pledges; or, funds requiring cash or in-kind match, etc. (Dropkin, Halpin, & Touche, 2017). Similarly, the mental health clientele payer source is just as diverse as the income sources.

Most importantly, however, clienteles must understand the exact healthcare cost levels they are willing to incur, depending on their personal financial situations and circumstances.  The first clientele payer sources are based on a traditional health insurance plan, which is primarily based on deductibles and copays. It will help in paying for prescriptions, laboratory tests, or therapist’s or doctor’s bills, together with other coinsurances, deductibles, and copayments. One is only responsible for coinsurances after meeting their deductibles until they attain their maximum out-of-pocket payments. Furthermore, compared to Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) plans, visits for mental health and physical therapies are unlimited, apart from financial limitations on the side of the clientele. Private health insurance plans also have the advantage that the client will be able to choose their preferred medical facility and doctors. However, the sources of income may suffer because private pays entails making huge monthly expenses, even more than Public Health Insurance, although it rarely covers all medical services. Medicaid and Medicare are public health insurance plans that are available for many Americans.

As a payer source for the mental health clientele, however, it is unfortunate that the public mental health sector is grossly underfunded compared to other sectors, although there are a very high prevalence and disease burden in the area (SAMHSA, 2017). There is insufficient consideration of their contributions to the life expectancy projections, and mortality rates, especially mental health conditions, are seldom captured on the death certificates. From a budgetary perspective, these forms of public health insurance drastically subsidize healthcare costs. If one has both, there is a higher likelihood that all the costs would be covered. The Affordable Care Act did expand the coverage for millions of Americans concerning mental health and substance abuse disorder services, stipulating that over 60 million Americans were eligible by the year 2017 (Office of Budget, 2019). Unfortunately, only lower than half of the children and adults with these mental health conditions are covered. Thus, the clientele has to dig deep into their pockets to pay for the necessary services.

References

Dropkin, M., Halpin, J., & Touche, B. L. (2007). Understanding Basic Types of Nonprofit Budgets: Overview. In The Budget-Building Book for Nonprofits: A Step-by-Step Guide for Managers and Boards (2 ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Dropkin, M., Halpin, J., & Touche, B. L. (2017). How different Sources and Types of Income can Affect Budgeting. In The Budget-Building Book for Nonprofits: A Step-by-Step Guide for Managers and Boards. Jossey-Bass.

Office of Budget. (2019, May 31). HHS FY 2017 Budget in Brief. Retrieved June 4, 2020, from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy2017/budget-in-brief/index.html

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2017). Health And Human Services FY 2018 Budget In Brief. Retrieved June 4, 2020, from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Retrieved from https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy2018/budget-in-brief/samhsa/index.html#