Monday, March 01, 2004

Many States Limiting Medicaid Coverage of Mental Health Treatments
Item in the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report based on reporting in the Wall Street Journal (not available online) - "The Wall Street Journal on Monday examined states' inclusion of mental health medications on preferred-drug lists in an effort to lower prescription drug costs for Medicaid programs by "steering doctors to less-costly but clinically equivalent medications." While 25 states have legal provisions to exempt mental health medications from preferred drug lists, states such as Kentucky, West Virginia and Texas include such drugs in their formularies, excluding the most expensive..."  
  

Wayne Co. mental health board targeted in bills (Michigan)
Detroit Free Press story - "Fed up with political infighting and fearful that federal funding could be yanked, a lawmaker wants increased state control over Wayne County's problem-plagued mental health agency. Sen. Beverly Hammerstrom, R-Temperance, plans to introduce legislation targeting the Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health (CMH) agency. The news drew strong reaction Thursday and intensified the debate about who should control the $530-million agency. The state Senate Health Policy Committee will take up the package of bills on March 10. At the heart of the issue, Hammerstrom and other officials say, are at least 75,000 people with mental illnesses and disabilities who rely on the Detroit-Wayne County agency for help with housing, therapy, job training, transportation, medical assistance and other services. The bills would eliminate county control of the agency by making it an independent authority and would change the makeup of the 12-member board that oversees the county's mental-health services."