Friday, March 19, 2004

Medicaid Spending and Enrollment: State and National Data Update
At the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Unisured, "This series of tables provides recent data on state-by-state and national Medicaid spending and enrollment. Using the latest federal information sources available, the first set of tables contains information on Medicaid spending by service using data from the Centers on Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) Form 64 for Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2002. A second set of tables is based on analysis of a more detailed data source, the Medicaid Statistical Information System (MSIS), which provides information on enrollment and spending per enrollee for FFY 2000. Both sets of tables were prepared for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured by the Urban Institute." See also at the KCMU web site, Medicaid's Federal-State Partnership: Alternatives for Improving Financial Integrity - Summary of Issues, Approaches, and Alternatives for Reform - "In this report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Penny Thompson, former deputy director for the Center for Medicaid and State Operations, used existing models from the private sector and other government programs to assess Medicaid’s financial management and to develop options for improvement. This table summarizes the report’s findings."  
  

The NHS Workforce in England 2003 (UK)
Adobe Acrobat report from the UK's Department of Health, published earlier this month - "Our latest NHS staff census conducted in September 2003 reveals that we now have a total workforce of 1,282,900 – a record increase of 59,000 (4.8 per cent) in 12 months. We have seen several years of sustained and substantial growth in the NHS workforce and those working in the service and patients using it can notice a real difference. Thanks to the efforts that have been made locally and nationally to increase the number of staff at all levels and in all organisations we are reducing waiting times, improving patient outcomes and providing care in new and better ways."  
  

Drug-Fighters Turn to Rising Tide of Prescription Abuse
New York Times article - "After years in which marijuana, cocaine and heroin were by far the main focus of the nation's war on drugs, the Bush administration is now attacking the rising abuse of prescription drugs. While marijuana remains the nation's most abused drug, according to government and private studies, narcotic pain relievers like OxyContin and Vicodin, along with a variety of some other prescription medications, have overtaken amphetamines to rank second. A recent nationwide study by the University of Michigan showed that from the 2002 to 2003 school year, nonmedical use of prescription drugs among students in the 8th, 10th and 12th grades increased even as use of other illicit drugs dropped by 11 percent..." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

New York Health Care Reform Working Group Interim Report
A report, in Adobe Acrobat format, available at the Open Minds web site - "In order to examine this multifaceted problem, Governor Pataki convened a Health Care Reform Working Group -- calling upon the experience and knowledge of business and government leaders, past and present, to provide recommendations to make our health care system more effective and efficient. Due to the complexity, size and scope of today’s Medicaid program, the Working Group chose to review broad subject areas to reach conceptual agreement first on topics to address, and then to review proposals developed to address the problems in these areas. The Working Group identified specific areas or key issues that needed to be explored and reviewed. In this initial report, the Working Group addresses key areas such as long term care, certificate of need, local share of Medicaid costs, and prescription drug costs."  
  

Cell damage could explain why some schizophrenics fail to respond to treatment
NewsRx story at PsycPORT - "Damage to brain cells caused by an excess of free radicals, naturally occurring bodily chemicals that have been linked to a variety of health problems, could help explain why some schizophrenics either fail to improve or deteriorate as they age, according to a new study. Naoya Nishioka, MD, PhD, and Steven Arnold, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania conducted postmortem tests on the brains of both elderly 'poor-outcome' schizophrenics and elderly subjects without psychiatric disorders. Their findings appeared in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry."  
  

Government Auditors Urge Further Crackdown on State Medicaid Financing
Reuters Health story at Medscape - "Government auditors told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee Thursday that while recent actions to prevent states from 'gaming' the state-federal Medicaid health program for the poor have constrained such practices, there remains potential for abuse. Intergovernmental transfers (IGTs) - in which a city or county-owned nursing home or hospital puts up funding to claim part of the state share of Medicaid matching payments from the federal government - 'can be a legitimate state budget tool,' Kathryn Allen of the U.S. General Accounting Office told the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. But IGTs, as they as known, have also been 'closely associated with, if not synonymous, with abusive schemes,' Allen said." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Psychscape
Psychscape is a web log by the editor of Medscape's "Psychiatry" page - "Psychscape is an experiment in using the weblog as a means of communication for issues of psychiatry, mental health and neuroscience (or whatever.) Most blogs that are out there are more like an individual's diary. I am hoping that this weblog will promote more communication and comments that are generated by the items posted or by some random thoughts." I appreciate, too, the fact that its list of links prominently features PULSE.  
  

Advocate for mentally ill pushes for court program (Illinois)
Daily Herald story on the efforts of Jim McNish, president of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Illinois, who "has been working with legislators, the state's attorney's office, local groups and Judge Jim Doyle to bring a mental health diversion program to Kane County. In doing so, McNish and a panel of experts said, both those suffering from mental illness and those paying to keep them locked up would benefit. McNish proved instrumental in a Kane County process unveiled in 2000 for how police, prosecutors, health-care professionals and courts should deal with the mentally ill..."  
  

Mental Health Initiative Heads for November Ballot (California)
PR Newswire story at Yahoo - "The Mental Health Services Act is expected to qualify for the November ballot, with advocates submitting almost twice the number of required signatures this week. Of the 643,950 voter signatures on petitions for the measure, more than 100,000 were collected by volunteers. 'There are a lot of recent success stories in mental health care, but our progress is endangered in a time of budget cuts. This initiative will ensure that California does not squander its progress and revert to a mental health care system that deals only with crises,' said Rusty Selix, executive director of the Mental Health Association in California. The Campaign for Mental Health will ask voters this November to approve a broad expansion of mental health services to provide prevention, treatment and long-term management services benefiting children, adults and seniors who face serious mental illness -- including many who are homeless because of such illnesses. The programs would be funded with a new 1% tax on income above $1 million per year."