New Mental Health Diseases and Conditions Findings from Temple University Outlined (Using Demand Analysis To Examine Private Practice Mental Health Providers’ Decision To Accept Health Insurance): Mental Health Diseases and Conditions

2026 MAY 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators discuss new findings in Mental Health Diseases and Conditions. According to news reporting from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Less than half of insured Americans can access mental health care due to a variety of barriers, including low provider participation in insurance networks. Providers report insufficient reimbursement rates and administrative burdens as reasons they do not accept insurance.”

Financial support for this research came from NIH National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Temple University, “We examined the importance of these barriers and the extent to which reimbursement rates would need to increase for private practice providers to accept insurance. Private practice mental health providers (i.e., psychologists, marriage and family therapists, mental health counselors, and social workers) completed an online survey containing two behavioral economic tasks. In the Criteria Ranking Task, providers (n = 326) ranked barriers that most deterred them from accepting insurance, reporting insufficient reimbursement rates as the most important, followed by administrative burdens. In the Hypothetical Demand Task, providers indicated the likelihood of accepting Medicare at various reimbursement rate increases with and without hypothetical administrative assistance. Participants indicated they would accept insurance following 83% rate increases (P-max = $188.97) for doctoral providers (n = 188) and 118% rate increases (P-max = $168.51) for master’s-level providers (n = 112). If provided administrative assistance, participants indicated they would accept insurance following 100% rate increases (P-max = $206.28) for doctoral providers and 169% rate increases (P-max = $207.90) for master’s-level providers. Results support existing research findings that insufficient reimbursement rates and administrative burdens are the primary barriers to mental health providers accepting insurance.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Policy efforts to increase access to mental healthcare must consider the incentives and burdens that impact providers and their decision to accept insurance.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Using Demand Analysis To Examine Private Practice Mental Health Providers’ Decision To Accept Health Insurance. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 2026. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research can be contacted at: Springer, One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, Ny, United States. (Springer - www.springer.com; Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research - http://www.springerlink.com/content/0894-587x/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Kyler R. Lehrbach, Temple University, Dept. of Psychology, Philadelphia, PA 19122, United States. Additional authors for this research include Elizabeth Rawa, Daniel Zweben, Donald A. Hantula, Philip C. Kendall, Briana S. Last, Danielle R. Adams, Aden Littlewood and Margaret E. Crane.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-026-01507-9. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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