From the National Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers, Inc.

Recieved this and a petition w/permission to copy and distribute.  Email me if
you would like me to send you one.

I am just typing the first line due to length with a couple of tidbits here and
there.

1.  Disregarding personal and medical privacy.

2.  Using false advertising.
Managed care often claims to provide all mental health services at times when
it offers only ultrabrief therapy - a short-term and frequently ineffective
treatment.

3.  Using deceptive language.  
Professional ethics emphasixe giving patients accurate and straightforward
information.  Managed care, on the other hand, uses misleading language at
every level.  Companies which intentionally restrict choice call themselves
names like "Choice Health" or "Options Health."   Such misleading language does
not belong in health care.

4.  Violating traditional scientific ethics.
In managed care new methods of delivering treatment are decided according to
secret and proprietary guidelines.  Managed care claims that these are
scientific guidelines, but does not reveal the guidelines or supporting
evidence.

5.  Practicing outside of a professional's area of competence.

6.  Creating and intensifying conficts of interest.

7.  Keeping secrets about conflicts of interest.
Due to intense public pressure{*filter*}clauses have been dropped and changed to
"managed care unfriendly" behavior ratings.

8.  Violating informed consent procedures.

9.  Using "kickbacks" to keep patients away from specialists.
A summary:  a physician sends a patient to a cardiologist and receives $100.00
for the referral.  This is illegal.  Managed care avoids this law by paying
doctors bonuses for NOT referring patients anywhere.

10.  Squandering money entrusted to their care.

11.  Disregarding information about harm to patients.
Managed care has many policies that can have a negative impact onpatients but
does nto report evaluations of this negative impact.  For example, managed care
executives have reported that the hassle of going through gatekeepers will stop
10  - 20 % of patients from seeking treatment.  In spite of numerous reports
that gatekeeper systems keep patients from needed treatment, managed care
reports do not estimate the harm resulting from such barriers to treatment.