One of the big challenges in treating chronic illnesses is that they don’t fit well into tradition funding models. With any chronic illness, one of the most important goals is to facilitate behavior change and then provide long term support to maintain those behavior changes. There are no billing codes for these activities and they are not “procedures” as we are used to thinking about them. Practitioners who choose to engage in these activities often have to do so on their own dime.
So…it’s good to see that the federal government is thinking about how to fund these activities.
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Published by Jason Schwartz
I have been an addiction professional and social worker since 1994. I started blogging in 2005 as the Clinical Director at Dawn Farm. I currently serve as the Director of Social Work and Spiritual Care for a healthcare system. I've also served as the Director of Behavioral Health at another hospital. I'm also a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work.
Views expressed here are my own.
Keep in mind that the field, the contexts in which the field operates, and my views have changed over time.
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