Comments on: DSM-V First Draft: Semantics, Medicine, and Money http://discoveringalcoholic.com/alcoholism/dsm-v-first-draft-semantics-medicine-and-money The Discovering Alcoholic is a top rated recovery blog covering alcoholism, substance abuse, treatment and recovery issues. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:17:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: armme http://discoveringalcoholic.com/alcoholism/dsm-v-first-draft-semantics-medicine-and-money#comment-6321 armme Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:01:23 +0000 http://discoveringalcoholic.com/?p=4016#comment-6321 You know, I never even considered the aspect of "using the book to legit unacceptable behaviors"...or to get people out of things they probably should be held accountable for. I, naively, was just happy to finally have the word "addiction" back in the DSM (replacing the term DEPENDENCE)...but other than that, I honestly didn't give the book much thought! Well no, wait! Lol that isn't true! I worked for 7 years as an office manager at a small outpatient substance abuse counseling center...where we did individual, group, family and IOP counseling. The DSM ruled our world back then, because the only way we could get PAID for what we did, is if we gave the person seeking help the diagnosis their particular insurance carrier "deemed" appropriate for our "level" of care. WHAT A NIGHTMARE! Insurance parity is a deep seeded issue that doesn't end just with us getting coverage for treatment, that is for sure! I would like to say that we diagnose both mental illness, addiction and physical illness based on what the expert analyzing the disease felt was best--but I now work as a medical laboratory technologist-and believe me, what the insurance company will pay for comes into play far too much when it comes to diagnosing ANY illness. Anyway--thank you for giving me something else to consider. What a convoluted world we live in! Kristan Hilchey ARM-ME You know, I never even considered the aspect of “using the book to legit unacceptable behaviors”…or to get people out of things they probably should be held accountable for. I, naively, was just happy to finally have the word “addiction” back in the DSM (replacing the term DEPENDENCE)…but other than that, I honestly didn’t give the book much thought!

Well no, wait! Lol that isn’t true! I worked for 7 years as an office manager at a small outpatient substance abuse counseling center…where we did individual, group, family and IOP counseling. The DSM ruled our world back then, because the only way we could get PAID for what we did, is if we gave the person seeking help the diagnosis their particular insurance carrier “deemed” appropriate for our “level” of care. WHAT A NIGHTMARE! Insurance parity is a deep seeded issue that doesn’t end just with us getting coverage for treatment, that is for sure!

I would like to say that we diagnose both mental illness, addiction and physical illness based on what the expert analyzing the disease felt was best–but I now work as a medical laboratory technologist-and believe me, what the insurance company will pay for comes into play far too much when it comes to diagnosing ANY illness.

Anyway–thank you for giving me something else to consider. What a convoluted world we live in!

Kristan Hilchey
ARM-ME

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