I am writing to clarify a situation which has proved troublesome for analysts who have not had the following information. Originally, a Treatment Report Form was created for a Peer Review contract between the American Psychiatric Association and the Federal government, for its CHAMPUS program. This form includes an instruction indicating that, if psychoanalysis is the treatment, the provider's report should follow the guidelines in the Psychoanalytic Peer Review Manual.

Subsequently, when a second contract was signed between the American Psychiatric Association and the Aetna Company, this instruction was removed from the Treatment Report Form and placed in a covering letter. Since then, more than a dozen similar contracts have been signed between the American Psychiatric Association and various insurance companies. In no instance that I am familiar with has the Report Form itself carried the recommendation for the use of the Psychoanalytic Manual.

What is more troubling, the covering letter does not always indicate the company's recognition of psychoanalysis as a treatment modality. Frequently, the only opportunity to designate what we are doing comes when we are asked to name our form of treatment or to justify a treatment frequency of more than twice a week.

It is essential for analysts who wish their treatment to be reviewed by analysts to name psychoanalysis as the treatment modality and to cover the issues described in the Psychoanalytic Peer Review Manual.

William Offenkrantz, M.D.

Milwaukee