Is it true that psychiatrists make more money off of labeling patients with Schizophrenia or Bipolar?

Question

Since they're considered as serious? Like if a person is REALLY suffering OCD, would some psychiatrists say "Bipolar", just so they can make more money because labeling them with OCD isn't considered as serious to them? That's what many people tell me. When I was in New York, I lived in a homeless shelter with 40 other women, & EVERYBODY had a diagnosis of schizo or bipolar! Was that a crooked, lazy psychiatrist or what? & he viewed my OCD unwanted thoughts as Bipolar racing thoughts.

I have never been diagnosed with bipolar until then. & I have a new doctor, & she says I don't seem bipolar.

Answer 1

Yes and no. Sometimes Medicaid won't pay for somebody's treatment unless they are diagnosed with a "Serious Mental Illness." It's a government funding thing.
It's possible the psychiatrist who was treating the homeless people wasn't really very good.

Whether the doctor personally got more or less money per patient is hard to say. It's possible he got the same paycheck regardless.

I used to work for a state mental health agency where patient's could only be considered for a certain program of treatment if they had certain diagnoses.

I remember once where a patient was diagnosed with OCD and his benefits would have been cut off. I told the psychiatrist and he changed the patient's diagnosis to Disorganized Schizophrenia.

Mental health is more subjective than other forms of medicine, and it's not unusual for somebody's diagnosis to change when they go to a different doctor.

If somebody has private insurance, the diagnosis isn't going to make as much difference; the patient is more likely to get the same services regardless of diagnosis.

People who have money are likely to get better health care in general than people who don't have money.

Answer 2

I've never heard of this! But it's wrong. I don't think the pyschiatrists are making the money; I think the pharmaceutical companies are. Maybe the drugs for OCD are less expensive than the meds for people who are bipolar or schizo? I've been diagnosed with clinical depression, a little bit of bipolar for fun, and I just read this book about this woman who was obsessing about everything, and she sounded just like me. The pharmaceutical companies are raking in the big BUCKS, believe it. If I didn't have the health insurance I have, I would NEVER be able to afford all of my meds. It would come to about $1,000 a month. Your new doctor seems like she knows what she's talking about! I've seen many shrinks and they all say something different. I have a new one now and he's taking me off of Cymbalta and putting me back on Prozac. Sigh.

Answer 3

No, there is no more money to be made on any particular disorder versus another-doctors and therapists are paid the same rate regardless of the diagnosis as long as it is a reimbursable diagnosis. (Insurance will not cover V Codes, like parent-child relational problem) so there is no rationale for giving one diagnosis over another. You may have just run into a poor diagnostician-some doctors tend to see Bipolar in everyone or favor certain diagnoses more than others when they are not good at differentiating one disorder from another.

Answer 4

I used to do insurance billing and the doctor makes the same amount no matter what the diagnosis.

The difference is how many visits to a psychiatrist a year the insurance company will approve. Perhaps it is higher with diagnosis of bipolar or schizophrenic.

Answer 5

In order to be bi-polar you have to have EXTREME mood swings. (Hence the word BI-POLAR. Opposite sides, like the north and south poles.) You're way up, you talk too fast, you're too enthusiastic about your latest endeavor or discovery and just HAVE to get everyone to listen to you. Your in such a good mood you behave recklessly. Then your down, you're depressed, you won't get out of bed, you don't want to get involved with anything or anyone. Then you're up again. And the cycle repeats itself. It affects peoples' daily behavior. (Of course, this is just a simplistic explanation on my part.)
OCD is where everything has to be in an orderly fashion or you go nuts. You have to check to see if you left the stove on 3 times. You have to wash your hands every 5 minutes. It's a matter of repetition.
I don't think it's a problem with ETHICS on the part of the psychiatrists. I think many people are misdiagnosed. And I think the term bi-polar is overused. So is ADD (extreme hyperactivity) in both children and adults.
The psychiatrists aren't really sure what your problem so they term you bi-polar when it could be Mood Disorder NOS (not otherwise specified.) That means they can't figure out what the h--- is wrong with you. But then that would reflect on their inefficiency as a psychiatrist. And we wouldn't want THAT, would we?
p.s. You are NOT supposed the take Zoloft if you are truly bi-polar. It makes the condition worse.

Answer 6

You must remember that all mental illness diagnosis are subjective in nature, in other words the psychiatrists have to go by what you say and how they perceive what you have said. Psychiatrists are paid by the hour, so the diagnosis doesn't matter, they may get more endorsement money from drug reps because medicines used to treat bipolar and schizophrenia can be more expensive.

Answer 7

You hit the nail on the head I agree with you, my grandaughter was just diagnosed bipolar, and I don't agree, no family history of bipolar, plain old depression is in our family, but now they are medicating this 17 year old girl who I beleive is just acting out, she just wants to grow up to fast and throws these hissy fits to try to pressure her parents into being more lenient with her, problem is she pulled a knife on her dad very uncharateristic of her, and the court ordered treatment, the phycologist said its by polare after she filled out a questioairre, now she's drugged up, and they are adding Zoloft which I know from experience is crappy, makes you feel bad and jittery. How can a person get well with all this crap in thier system, I agree with you the Doctors make the diagnosis worse than what it is because they get paid more for the more severe diagnosis. I wish you and I could make the average person aware of this. I hope this helps.

Answer 8

Psychiatrists, for the most part, do more harm than good. I am bipolar, and I suggested to the psychiatrist at one time several years ago that I might be because of my symptoms and that my mother is. The asshole laughed. It took two more years before a therapist (PhD in social work) figured out that I am. At that point, after more than the one episode of dealing with asshole psychiatrists, I said "enough." I won't see them at all anymore. I see an AARN who is under the "supervision" of the psychiatrists. To top it off, I haven't been able to work for more than ten years, and I tried to get the "helpful" psychiatrists where I go to sign off a disability form for my student loan, but none of them "want to get involved in that sort of thing." I finally talked to my internist and she said, "Bring me the form and I'll fill it out and sign it." As I said, psychiatrists do more harm than good. They probably sign a different oath than the hippocratic oath that other doctors abide by.

I guess my answer would be no, they don't get more money. But then with the psychiatrists I've seen, who knows? They're all full of crap. By the way, I have a bit of OCD along with being bi-polar, along with having panic attacks. It isn't all that unusual to suffer from all three.

By the way, to Patricia, the woman who said her granddaugter was put on Zoloft in addition to the other drugs, for the most part anti-depressants along with bi-polar drugs spells disaster. She needs to be on one, not both. Otherwise, she'll be worse off than she already is.

Answer 9

The world has a lot of rotten, unethical psychiatrists. Get a whole bunch of doctors to diagnosis you before you accept psycho or schizo. The really good doctors in this modern age do NO labeling at all.

Answer 10

I look at it this way... There are goad psych doctors and then there are the bad ones... As with any profession. It is always good to get a second opinion . those illnesses are judged by behavioral characteristics, and it is not an exact science.