Final answer:
Managed care can lead to situations where clients end therapy prematurely if their insurance stops payment, especially under HMOs that pay a fixed amount per patient, potentially incentivizing limited care or early termination of services to control costs.
Step-by-step explanation:
The possibility that some clients may terminate therapy once their insurance stops covering the costs is a genuine concern linked to managed care practices. This situation can occur under systems like health maintenance organizations (HMOs), where the allocation of resources to patients is managed tightly, leading to potential reductions in the number of therapy sessions covered. When insurance coverage is inadequate or ends, clients who rely on insurance payments may be forced to discontinue their therapy, adversely impacting their health outcomes.
In fee-for-service models, providers get reimbursed for each service they perform, which may encourage more comprehensive care but can lead to higher overall healthcare costs. On the other hand, managed care models like HMOs pay a fixed amount per patient regardless of services provided, which can incentivize limiting care to reduce costs. The balance between cost control and adequate care provision is a fundamental challenge in the insurance and healthcare industries, often resulting in conflicts of interest and challenging decisions for both insurers and patients.