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Eric A. Plaut, MD
Commissioner, Department of Mental Health, State of Connecticut 90 Washington St Hartford, CT 06115

Daniel X. Freedman, MD
Department of Psychiatry University of Chicago Box 2011 950 E 59th St Chicago, IL 60637

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1981;38(1):114.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

As government becomes more involved in health care, it seeks reliable data on which to base its decisions. It is unfortunate that the data are not always used appropriately. All too often political pressures have led to abuse of data derived from scientific studies. Currently, there are congressional and agency proposals to study the efficacy of psychotherapy to determine reimbursement for professional care. Apart from the unwarranted assumption of nonefficacy¹ and numerous definitional and operational vagaries² and apart from their failure to grasp the essence of all medical treatment, the reimbursement proposals have caused great concern with respect to the application of scientific data.³ The recent experience with bed-ceiling determination gives substance to that concern.

The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, wishing to limit the number of general hospital beds for short-term care, contracted with the Institute of Medicine to study the issue. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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