Scientific Support Needed to Prove Effectiveness of Residential Treatment
Treating eating disorders is very difficult. By the time most patients seek treatment, their disorder has been in full swing for many months or years, making it challenging to transform their disordered eating behavior patterns into healthy habits.
Residential treatment for eating disorders is receiving unprecedented attention because of a recent court case involving Blue Shield of California and a woman admitted to residential treatment for anorexia. An article posted on World of Psychology discusses the burden placed on residential treatment centers to provide proof that this form of treatment is necessary and beneficial to patients.
The article mentions that the cost of treatment in a residential facility averages around $1,000 per day, and the average length of stay is around 83 days. Insurance companies are putting pressure on eating disorder experts who recommend this type of treatment to provide evidence that the cost is resulting in recovery.
Those who advocate for residential treatment say that it is helpful and necessary for some patients, in certain cases even providing life-saving treatment. However, in the absence of a randomized controlled study, insurance companies are not convinced.
Eating disorders present a unique type of challenge because, unlike situations of drug or alcohol addiction, the patients must still eat. It is possible that residential care is an ideal way to retrain individuals to eat in healthy ways. But until more research supports the need for residential care, insurance companies will continue to question the practice.
