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INTRODUCTION
Crime in Mental Health Care
For decades, psychiatrists and psychologists have claimed a monopoly over the
field of mental health. Governments and private health insurance companies have
provided them with billions of dollars every year to treat �mental illness,�
only to face industry demands for even more funds to improve the supposed, ever-worsening
state of mental health. No other industry can afford to fail consistently and
expect to get more funding.
A significant portion of these appropriations and insurance reimbursements
has been lost due to financial fraud within the mental health industry, an international
problem estimated to cost more than a hundred billion dollars every year.
The United States loses approximately $100 billion to health care fraud each
year. Up to $40 billion of this is due to fraudulent practices in the mental
health industry.
One of the largest health care fraud suits in U.S. history was in mental
health , yet it is the smallest sector within health care.
A study of U.S. Medicaid and Medicare insurance fraud, especially in New York,
between
1977 and 1995, showed psychiatry to have the worst track record of all medical
disciplines.
Germany reports roughly $1 billion is defrauded each year.
In Australia, health care fraud and patient over-servicing has cost taxpayers
up to $330 million a year.
In Ontario, Canada, in August 2002, psychotherapist Michael Bogart was sentenced
to 18 months in jail for defrauding the government of almost $1 million, the
largest medical fraud case in the history of the province.
Mark Schiller, president of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons,
stated in 2003, �I have frequently seen psychiatrists diagnose patients with
a range of psychiatric diagnoses that aren�t justified, to obtain [insurance]
reimbursements.�
However, psychiatrist and psychologist membership bodies do not police this
criminality. Instead, as former president of the American Psychiatric Association
(APA), Paul Fink, arrogantly admitted: �It is the task of the APA to protect
the earning power of psychiatrists.�
The mental health monopoly has practically zero accountability and zero liability
for its failures. This has allowed psychiatrists and psychologists to commit
far more than just financial fraud. The roster of crimes committed by these
�professionals� ranges from fraud, drug offenses, rape and sexual abuse to child
molestation, assault, manslaughter and murder.
The primary purpose of mental health treatment must be the therapeutic care
and treatment of individuals who are suffering emotional disturbance. It must
never be the financial or personal gain of the practitioner. Those suffering
are inevitably vulnerable and impressionable. Proper treatment therefore demands
the highest level of trustworthiness and integrity in the practitioner.
As experience has shown that there are many criminal mental health practitioners,
the Citizens Commission on Human Rights has developed a database at www.psychcrime.org
that lists people in the mental health industry who have been convicted and
jailed.
Created in response to the high number of convicted mental health practitioners
who continue to seek employment in the mental health industry, one of its primary
purposes is to inform people about the background of those individuals.
There is no place for criminal intent or deed in the field of mental health.
CCHR works with others to ensure this standard is upheld.
The website and this publication are presented as a public information service
to law enforcement agencies, health care fraud investigators, international
police agencies, medical and psychological licensing boards and the
general public with the purpose of bringing to an end criminal psychiatric abuse
in the mental health system.
Sincerely,
Jan Eastgate President,
Citizens Commission on Human Rights International
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