Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Transforming Ohio Medicaid: Recommendations from the Ohio Commission to Reform Medicaid Report in Adobe Acrobat format, brought to our attention by Open Minds - "The unsustainable rate of spending growth not only threatens the long-term viability of the program for the needy, but also threatens to crowd out funding for other essential state services including education, economic development, public safety, and transportation. The problem is not unique to Ohio; every state has experienced skyrocketing Medicaid costs that in some cases have brought the program to near bankruptcy in those states. Governor Bob Taft and the Ohio General Assembly created the Ohio Commission to Reform Medicaid to address these issues and recommend strategies for reform. After a year of comprehensive study of Ohio’s Medicaid program and review of initiatives in other states, the Commission believes that Ohio must take both short and long-term actions starting this coming fiscal year..."  
  

Bill Seeks to Rectify Shortage Of Child MH Clinicians  Psychiatric News story - "APA and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry support legislation to expand the number of child and adolescent psychiatrists and child mental health professionals. Legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives and Senate last month to create financial incentives for medical students and residents to become child psychiatrists and for child psychiatry training programs to increase their recruitment and enrollment, according to an action alert from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The Child Health Care Crisis Relief Act would provide similar financial incentives and educational support for individuals to become child mental health professionals, defined by the bill as psychologists, school psychologists, psychiatric nurses, school social workers, marriage and family therapists, school counselors, and professional counselors..."  
  

Where Did the Money Go At Defunct State Hospital? (Michigan) Psychiatric News story - "Michigan's Northville state hospital may now be shuttered, but a state audit finds that its former staff left behind a legacy of poorly used funds. A performance audit of the former Northville State Psychiatric Hospital reveals a pattern of fiscal mismanagement dating back to 1992 that cost Michigan taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Once one of Michigan's largest state psychiatric hospitals, Northville was built in the 1950s with the capacity to house more than 1,200 people. After the nationwide deinstitutionalization effort and the move toward community-based treatment, Northville was closed in 2003..."  
  

Proposal for a Rational Formulary for Antipsychotic Medications Drug Benefit Trends article at Medscape - "Most formulary decisions are based on similarities or differences among competing medicines—the pros and cons of olanzapine versus risperidone or haloperidol, for example—along with cost considerations. Instead, what if formulary decision makers focused on prescriber and patient variables? Perhaps if formulary committees also took into account who does the prescribing for different patient populations, a properly constructed formulary for antipsychotic medicines, particularly the more expensive but very useful atypical agents (clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine, ziprasidone, and aripiprazole), would emerge. In considering the range of choices available, the relative benefits of medications, and the impact of medication costs on prescribing decisions, an important consideration is the type of insurance coverage a patient has. Thus, patients can be divided into 2 population domains—those who have private-sector insurance and those with public-sector insurance, typically Medicaid..." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Mental Health Transformation Trends: A Periodic BriefingThe first issue of a new bimonthly SAMHSA publication,"a briefing designed to keep mental health partners up to date on emerging issues, practices and trends as the Nation moves towards a recovery-oriented, consumer-driven mental health system. Information provided includes updates on the progress in transforming the Nation’s mental health system at the federal, state and local levels, information on SAMHSA’s Mental Health Transformation State Incentive Grants as well as a 'resource corner' of additional mental health system transformation printed materials and websites."  
  

There's Nothing Deep About Depression New York Times Magazine article by Peter Cramer - "Shortly after the publication of my book Listening to Prozac, 12 years ago, I became immersed in depression. Not my own. I was contented enough in the slog through midlife. But mood disorder surrounded me, in my contacts with patients and readers. To my mind, my book was never really about depression. Taking the new antidepressants, some of my patients said they found themselves more confident and decisive. I used these claims as a jumping-off point for speculation: what if future medications had the potential to modify personality traits in people who had never experienced mood disorder? If doctors were given access to such drugs, how should they prescribe them? The inquiry moved from medical ethics to social criticism: what does our culture demand of us, in the way of assertiveness? It was the medications' extra effects -- on personality, not on the symptoms of depression -- that provoked this line of thought..." "nyt"  
  

Louisiana Psychologists Begin Prescribing Drugs AP story reprinted at PsycPORT - "The fight over whether psychologists should be allowed to prescribe medication, though they lack medical degrees, sparked a fierce debate about patient safety and a high-powered push to get the new law passed last year. By contrast, the start of the program has received scarce attention. The first of the so-called "medical psychologists" began signing prescription pads more than a month ago with little fanfare, among the first psychologists in the nation to prescribe drugs. Louisiana and New Mexico are the only states that allow psychologists who complete specialized training and pass a national exam to write prescriptions for medication. Both states began issuing the prescribing certifications and licenses to a handful of psychologists within days of each other in February..."  
  

Kaisernetwork.org Holds Medicaid Webcast Item at the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report - "Beginning at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, April 20, kaisernetwork.org will webcast a live panel discussion about possible changes to Medicaid. Kaiser Family Foundation Vice President and kaisernetwork.org Editor-in-Chief Larry Levitt will moderate a discussion with Jim Frogue, state project director for the Center for Health Transformation; Jeanne Lambrew, associate professor of health policy in George Washington University's Department of Health Policy; and Alan Weil, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy. To ask questions, call toll-free at 1-888-KAISER8 (524-7378) during the show or send an email to ask@kaisernetwork.org before and during the discussion." See also the additional information available online.  
  

Older adults underserved, San Diego health experts say (California) Union-Tribune story - "Experts in the mental health field say San Diego County government needs to reach out to the community more to find older adults who need services. That's just one of the recurring themes county mental health officials are hearing as they hold public forums on how to best spend $40 million in new revenue expected from the state next year. More attention also should be paid to housing for the mentally ill and family-oriented services, among other needs, according to those who work with the mentally ill..."