Suicide remains all too common in the United States. As the ninth leading cause of death—responsible for 30,000 deaths annually—it is also one of the more preventable causes of death. Increasingly, mental health clinicians must care for suicidal patients within managed care systems. Managed care’s cost-driven focus on rapid assessment and triage, narrowly restrictive hospital admission criteria, and abbreviated inpatient stays have resulted in poorer clinical care and increased opportunities both for adverse outcomes such as suicide and for clinician liability.