Monday, July 25, 2005

The Efficiency and Quality of Commercial Mental Health Care in Southeastern Pennsylvania A 33 page report in MS Word format, brought to our attention by Open Minds, published by the Pennsylvania Psychological Association - "Magellan Behavioral Health (MBH) manages 99% of the HMO and most of the indemnity market for behavioral health in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Psychological Association (PPA) gathered data on MBH from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4), and personal reports and survey data from psychologists. With some exceptions, MBH does a good job in facilitating psychiatric hospitalizations when they are clinically indicated. PPA commended MBH for its innovative Assertive Community Treatment Program. However, MBH’s administrative procedures divert considerable resources away from and often disrupt patient care. These problems can be found primarily in authorizations, billing, credentialing, and appeals. The authorization process is expensive and cumbersome, contributes nothing to patient care, and often disrupts the continuity of patient care. The billing process is complicated by the frequency with which MBH or the insurer loses the authorizations or fails to process them on time. "  
  

Unprecedented Federal Alignment Announced to Help Provide People with Mental Illness Opportunity for Recovery SAMHSA press release - " The federal government is aligning resources in an unprecedented collaborative effort to help ensure that people with mental illness have every opportunity for recovery. Six cabinet level departments – Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration have detailed 70 specific steps in a mental health action agenda released today. 'Transforming Mental Health Care in America. The Federal Action Agenda: First Steps' is the beginning of a multi-year effort to alter the form and function of the mental health system. Also announced today is the creation of a Federal Executive Steering Committee to guide the work of mental health system transformation." See also the full report.  
  

Report Blasts State Mental Health Services (Hawaii) KGMB9 story - "Sixteen Hawaii residents died during a two-month period earlier this year, all from complications of mental illness. That information comes from the court appointed 'special master' overseeing the state Mental Health Division. U.S. Magistrate Kevin Chang says those deaths are just part of the proof that the state's mental health system is a mess. His scathing report comes less than a year before the deadline to fix the problems. The lengthy progress report warns that the state is nowhere near where it should be at this stage of the game..."  
  

Bredesen Launches New Mental Health Safety Net Initiative (Tennessee) Story in The Business Journal of Tri-Cities Tennessee/Virginia - "Health and Developmental Disabilities Virginia Trotter Betts to announce a $11.4 million partnership with community mental health agencies from across Tennessee that will benefit nearly 20,000 Tennesseans. In the most recent of efforts under Bredesen’s Health Care Safety Net, Tennessee will provide the funding for 20 community-based, nonprofit mental health agencies to continue key mental health services for patients with severe mental illnesses who will come off TennCare, the state’s financially troubled public health program. ... The Department of Mental Health encourages Tennesseans with severe mental illnesses coming off TennCare to register with participating agencies for the Mental Health Safety Net in order to immediately begin receiving key services, including assessment, evaluation, diagnostic, therapeutic intervention, psychiatric medication management and certain laboratory services. "  
  

House Committee Slots $2.2b for Vets' Mental Health Article at BlackEnterprise.com - "The members of Congress who decide how money is spent are focused on the mental health care of veterans, particularly those returning from combat who may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. In an unusual move, the House Appropriations Committee has fenced off $2.2 billion in the Department of Veterans Affairs budget for specialty mental health care 'to be assured that funding for mental health care will not be siphoned off for other purposes,' committee members said in an explanatory report on their budget recommendations for fiscal 2006. VA officials have estimated they will spend at least that much on specialty mental health programs the next fiscal year, and up to $10 billion for health care spending for all veterans who have mental illnesses. The committee's version of the 2006 defense appropriations bill also directs the Pentagon and the VA to jointly study mental health care, including PTSD, panic disorder and bipolar disorder. " See also Mental health study showsstrain of deployment, combat (Army Times) and two Seattle Times stories, VA straining to treat post-traumatic stress and Soaring PTSD disability payments scrutinized.  
  

$40 million boon for mental health producing turmoil (California) North County Times (San Diego) story - "The county has asked people with business connections to the mental health community to resign from county panels that dole out public money for mental health programs, a move that has angered some mental health advocates who say the move will keep valuable experts off the panels. The county has received about $40 million as a result of a new law, Proposition 63, which passed last year. The law imposes a 1 percent tax on California residents who make $1 million or more to help pay for mental health programs. Counties have been instructed to submit plans for the money ---- with advice from patients, family members and mental health service providers ---- to the state for approval."