Thursday, December 09, 2004

Private-For-Profit and Private-Non-Profit Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities, 2003
A new report, available in HTML and Acrobat formats, from SAMHSA/OAS. Among the highlights - "Of the 13,623 facilities responding to SAMHSA's 2003 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS), 87% were operated by private organizations. Among the private facilities, 26% were operated by for-profit organizations and 74% were operated by non-profit organizations; Private non-profit facilities had an higher average percentage of clients who were being treated for both drug and alcohol abuse (58%) than private for-profits (48%) and were more likely to offer residential treatment (36% vs. 15%)..."  
  

A win-win for health-care providers and consumers
Story in the December APA Monitor - "After years of legislative efforts, coalition building and discussions with managed-care officials, psychologists in Rhode Island--and their clients--are seeing the fruits of their labor. In August, they gained major concessions from Blue Cross/Blue Shield in their state. The company increased mental health benefits to 30 visits--an increase of 10 visits--dropped outpatient care management requirements and raised psychologist provider fees. The changes don't just benefit providers; they also assist consumers by giving them more available, accessible, comprehensive psychological services, notes Peter Oppenheimer, PhD, past-president of the Rhode Island Psychological Association "  
  

Children's mental health problems seen as 'epidemic'
Lead story in a special section in the latest APA Monitor - "One in five children and teens suffers from mental health problems, and the number is growing. The World Health Organization estimates that by 2020, neuropsychiatric disorders in children will swell by 50 percent compared with other health-related problems, making them one of the five leading causes of childhood illness, disability and death. While it is unclear exactly why the numbers are rising so rapidly, many experts believe it is related to increased stress in children and families and better diagnosis of existing problems. Yet, despite the fact that these conditions exact heavy tolls on the young--including substance abuse, academic failure, criminal involvement and suicide--less than half receive treatment, according to several recent reports, including those by a 2003 APA task force and a recent presidential subcommittee on children's mental health. Worse yet, only 20 percent get the right kind of treatment, the reports note. See also, in the same issue, Should our children be taking psychotropics?, What's new in children's mental health, Effective education for autism and A dilemma of definition.  
  

Pfizer To Turn Over Zoloft Research
AP story reprinted at InteliHealth - "Pfizer Inc. will turn over some internal research documents on its anti-depressant drug Zoloft to lawyers defending a 15-year-old South Carolina boy accused of murdering his grandparents. A Pfizer spokesman said Tuesday the New York-based drug company will comply with a South Carolina Circuit Court judge's order late last week requiring the drug maker to hand over the documents, which contain medical information from clinical trials."  
  

Medicaid Managed Care: Access and Quality Requirements Specific to Low-Income and Other Special Needs Enrollees
A GAO report in Adobe Acrobat format - "The use of managed care within Medicaid, a joint federal-state program that finances health insurance for certain low-income families with children and individuals who are aged or disabled, increased significantly during the 1990s. By 2003, 59 percent of Medicaid beneficiaries were enrolled in managed care, compared with less than 10 percent in 1991.1 Medicaid managed care, under which states make prospective payments to managed care plans to provide or arrange for all services for enrollees,2 attempts to ensure the provision of appropriate health care services in a cost-efficient manner. However, because plans are paid a fixed amount regardless of the number of services they provide, managed care programs require safeguards against the incentive for some plans to underserve enrollees, such as by limiting enrollees’ access to care. Access is also affected by other factors, such as physician location and willingness to participate in managed care plans."  
  

State works to help mentally ill prisoners (Maine)
Morning Sentinel story - "Maine has a higher incidence of mentally ill prisoners in its jails and prisons than most states, an advisory panel was told Wednesday. County jails, in particular, need to do more to channel the mentally ill accused of low-level crimes out of lockdowns and into better treatment programs, state corrections and mental-health officials say. That effort will not be successful, however, until the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Corrections join forces. Representatives of the two state agencies unveiled a plan Wednesday that they say would provide the help needed to make the system work better."  
  

Mental health company to pay back state (Vermont)
Brief WCAX story - "The state has reached a settlement with a Burlington-based mental health company contracted to provide services to inmates that the state claims the company did not provide.Paul Cotton has agreed to return 143-thousand dollars. Last spring Cotton's firm was the subject of a report by State Auditor Elizabeth Ready. Ready charged that the Corrections Department had paid Cotton's firm in advance and the company never delivered the services."  
  

Task force looks at mental health needs for area (Illinois)
Southtown Daily story - "Mental health experts met in Chicago Wednesday to unveil proposals for better services and more funding — and likely no Tinley Park Mental Health Center. The state-appointed task force was asked to develop a plan for adequate services on the South Side of the city and in the Southland and present it to the state Department of Human Services during budget negotiations in the spring. Gov. Rod Blagojevich suggested closing the Tinley Park hospital in February, among other cost-cutting measures in his budget proposal. Human Services Secretary Carol Adams said Wednesday that a role for the Tinley Park hospital remains on the table, although ideas discussed during the 2½-hour meeting excluded that possibility."  
  

Missouri Sees $7.7 Million in Mental Health Services Savings
Missouri Department of Mental Health press release - "An innovative program to increase the quality of care that Missouri residents with severe mental illnesses receive while encouraging more efficient use of Medicaid dollars appears to have achieved both its goals, a recent analysis shows. The Missouri Mental Health Medicaid Pharmacy Partnership Program (MHMPP), the first program of its kind in the United States, evaluates Medicaid mental health prescribing practices. The program seeks to improve care for Missouri residents by educating doctors about evidence-based best practices for mental health medications and reducing inefficient and ineffective prescribing patterns."  
  

New mental health unit to run Wayne County plans (Michigan)
Detroit Free Press story - "State lawmakers took final steps Wednesday to wrest Wayne County's embattled mental health system from the county and create an independent authority, which supporters said will stabilize services and allow a direct flow of Medicaid grants. The legislation, passed by the House and expected to get final approval from the Senate today, would create a 12-member governing board with six members appointed by the county executive and six by the mayor of Detroit. That is the same composition as the board governing the current Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health agency. The big difference under the authority is that $530 million in Medicaid grants would go directly to the authority for mental health programs rather than routing first through the county government."