Third-party payers and their agents frequently request data from psychiatric evaluations to make determinations about whether a hospital admission or a specific treatment modality will be covered by a particular insurance plan. Despite the blanket consents to release information to payers that most patients must sign to obtain insurance benefits, it is useful for the psychiatrist to obtain, whenever feasible, contemporaneous consent for such communications. In some instances, it may be necessary to inform the patient what specific information has been requested and obtain specific consent for the release of that information. With valid consent, the psychiatrist may release information to a third-party reviewer, supplying the third-party reviewer with sufficient information to understand the rationale for the treatment and why it was selected over potential alternatives. However, the psychiatrist may also withhold information about the patient not directly relevant to the utilization review or preauthorization decision (199, 200).