Monday, March 08, 2004

Mental health introduces changes (California)
Times-Standard story - "Humboldt County Mental Health officials unveiled their new medical system to a crowd of at least 50 people Thursday night. Humboldt is one of three counties that recently received a grant to participate in the California Medication Algorithm Project, a system designed to better ensure that mentally ill people receive the right amounts of the right medications. The system was created in Texas, and San Diego mental health agencies were the first in California to use it. Humboldt County Mental Health staff traveled to San Diego recently to receive training. They presented the project at a National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Humboldt meeting."  
  

'Carving out' mental health care (Illinois)
News Gazette story on changes to area mental health services - "...PersonalCare, which is part of Bethesda, Md.-based Coventry Health Care, declined to answer questions about its new partnership with MHNet, but its contract with that organization follows a growing, controversial trend among managed care companies to "carve out" the mental health portion of their members' benefits by turning them over to a separate company to administer. 'There are good carve-outs and bad carve-outs. It depends on how they're run,' said Mary Graham, a spokeswoman for the National Mental Health Association. On the positive side, Graham said, it can mean people are dealing with an organization that really understands the mental health system and often has good access to specialists. But on the down side, for some members it often means reduced services and less coordination between their mental health and primary care doctors, she said. ... The American Medical Association says it opposes carve-outs of mental health services in general, but because so many people are now being affected by these arrangements, the organization has established some patient protection guidelines that it encourages managed-care companies to follow."