Medicare Advantage Plans Offer Few Psychiatrists

People with private Medicare coverage may not be getting the mental health services they need because they cannot find a psychiatrist within their plan’s network, according to a new study.

More than half of the counties the researchers studied did not have a single psychiatrist participating in a Medicare Advantage plan, the private-sector counterpart to traditional Medicare. Some 30 million people, just over half of all participants in the federal program, are enrolled in these private plans.

The researchers, in an article published on Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs, found that of the plans reviewed, nearly...