Wednesday, April 07, 2004

SCHIP Changes in a Difficult Budget Climate: A Three-State Site Visit Report
A report (in Adobe Acrobat format) from the National Academy for State Heath Policy - " The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) conducted site visits to three states— Texas, Utah and Virginia—between December 2003 and February 2004 to gather information about programmatic changes to SCHIP in the wake of recent budget debates. The site visits were two days long and included meetings with SCHIP staff, consumer advocates, health plan representatives, and lawmakers. The purpose of the site visits was to gain a deeper understanding of issues and challenges confronting states in the current fiscal environment."  
  

Medicaid: A Lower-Cost Approach to Serving a High-Cost Population
A policy brief from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Unisured that "brings new analysis to the debate concerning the efficiency of Medicaid versus private health insurance as a mechanism for covering low-income children and adults."  
  

Monitored Care Decreases Gap in Depression Treatment Between Whites, Minorities
Item in yesterday's Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report - "Increasing patient education and monitoring can decrease the gap in treatment outcomes among whites and minorities with depression, according to a study published in the April issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, the Wall Street Journal reports. The study, led by researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles and RAND, followed 1,356 patients with depression who were enrolled in the Patients in Care study and divided them among 46 randomly selected clinics to receive one of three depression treatments..."  
  

Mental health still 'in turmoil' (UK)
BBC story - "Mentally ill patients are being subjected to "harrowing conditions", a group of charities and psychiatrists have said. Psychiatric wards remain overcrowded, unhygienic and run-down, according to Rethink, SANE, the Zito Trust and doctors. Some patients were also being denied latest drugs which have less side effects, the group said. They added government reforms were not happening fast enough..." See also resources at the SANE, Zito Trust and Rethink web sites.