Thursday, March 04, 2004

U.S. Medicaid Program Could Improve Financial Management
Reuters Health story at Medscape - "The joint state-federal Medicaid health program for the poor could take steps to better manage its finances without a radical change to the entire program, analysts said Tuesday. Tensions between the federal government, which pays just over 60 percent of total costs for the health insurance program for an estimated 44 million low-income women, children, elderly and disabled Americans, and the states, which pay the remaining 40 percent, have been rising in recent months. Last year, the federal government floated a proposal to review state Medicaid budgets in advance, giving them effective veto power over state mechanisms for providing their share of the funding. In January, the administration published a proposed rule change to require states to provide the data needed to implement the prospective review plan, giving states just 24 hours to comment. Governors cried foul, and after they appealed directly to President Bush during the governors' annual meeting in Washington last month, the proposal was temporarily withdrawn..." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Peer to Peer Resource Center
A new web site affiliated with the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance - "At the Peer-to-Peer Resource Center, we believe that the support of peers – other mental health consumers – is essential to wellness and recovery. We are working to bring peer support the recognition it deserves, and to make peers an integral part of every consumer’s treatment team. Our goal is to put in place a national system to train and certify peer specialists who work with other mental health consumers to promote outcomes of self-directed recovery, independence, and community integration..."  
  

Scientists Retract Vaccine-Autism Link
AP story reprinted at InteliHealth - "Most of the scientists involved in a widely discredited 1998 study that suggested a link between childhood vaccinations and autism have renounced the conclusion. A formal retraction is to be published this week in The Lancet medical journal by 10 of the 13 authors of the paper, which raised the possibility that the measles, mumps and rubella triple vaccine could be linked to autism."  
  

New Program Promotes Choice, Accountability In Substance Abuse Treatment
SAMHSA press release - "Thousands of Americans with substance use disorders will have the opportunity to choose their treatment options for recovery under Access to Recovery, a new $100 million discretionary grant program for states, announced today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The competitive grant program will give recipient states, territories, the District of Columbia and tribal organizations broad discretion to design and implement federally supported voucher programs to pay for a range of effective, community-based, substance abuse clinical treatment and recovery support services. By providing vouchers to people in need of treatment, the grant program promotes individual choice for substance abuse treatment and recovery services. It also expands access to care, including access to faith- and community-based programs, and increases substance abuse treatment capacity..." See also Access to Recovery and Access to Recovery: How It Will Work, also at the SAMHSA site.  
  

Children's Mental Health Aid Called Inadequate in Hartford (Connecticut)
New York Times story - "Citing hundreds of complaints about what the Connecticut attorney general called the 'grossly inadequate' mental health services offered to children, he and the state's child advocate began a joint investigation on Wednesday into the state's child welfare agency, private insurance companies and health maintenance organizations that provide programs and facilities.Advertisement Connecticut's Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, and the Child Advocate, Jeanne Milstein, said the investigation would focus on the state's Department of Children and Families, a $604 million agency struggling to meet a court-mandated improvement plan. The inquiry will also investigate whether insurance companies and H.M.O.'s are meeting their obligations to pay for the treatment of children with mental illness." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free]. See also State’s mental health care system, industry being probed in the New Haven Register.