The March 31-April 6, 2023 St. Louis Business Journal “Highest-Paid St. Louis Occupations” list (on page 47) shows Psychiatrists having the second-highest Mean Annual Wage ($307,910) and Mean Hourly Wage ($148.04), with 170 estimated local psychiatrists.
Unfortunately, psychiatry’s baseless promises to improve mental health are promises that have repeatedly failed to deliver positive results, encouraging up to $20 billion a year lost in the U.S. due to fraudulent practices in the mental health sector.
Government funding, without accountability for successful patient outcomes, has enabled massive financial fraud, waste and patient harm from psychiatrists and psychiatric facilities.
Greater oversight could help reduce government waste and isolate and eradicate harmful practices and introduce patient protections so that lives could be saved.
Amid a rise in the use of telehealth for mental healthcare, fraud, and the consequent enforcement activities are increasing. More than 20 states report fraud, waste, and abuse as a “concern” with respect to telehealth services used to provide behavioral healthcare, according to information collected by the U.S. Office of Inspector General. But even greater oversight is needed and stronger penalties for violations.
Fraud- or theft-related crimes account for the second largest part of all the crimes conducted in the mental health industry in the U.S.
No one denies that people can have difficult problems in their lives and that they can be mentally unstable. However, the emphasis must be on workable mental health healing methods which improve and strengthen individuals by restoring them to personal strength, ability, competence, confidence, responsibility, and well-being.
Contact your local, state and federal officials and urge them to stop funding harmful and fraudulent psychiatric practices; and urge them to provide greater oversight and stronger penalties for violations to help curb psychiatric fraud.