Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Capitation-based Funding Business Rules (New Zealand)
April 2004 Ministry of Health publication - "Capitation Based Funding (CBF) is the funding of primary health care based on number of registered individuals being cared for rather than individual visits like the existing fee for service style of funding. CBF is aimed at encouraging proactive health care in the community. This document is a summary of the business rules for CBF. These rules are fully documented in CBF's Detailed Requirements Use Cases..." See also related recent publications, Capitation-based Funding User Manual and Capitation-based Funding User Information Guide. .  
  

SAMHSA Unveils Strategic Prevention Framework
SAMHSA press release - "The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) today announced the availability of funding to implement a new Strategic Prevention Framework to advance community-based programs for substance abuse prevention and mental health promotion, and align them with the HHS HealthierUS initiative. SAMHSA will provide $45 million in cooperative agreements with states to launch this effort. The idea is to use public health research findings and apply this knowledge, along with evidence-based prevention programs that promote mental health and prevent substance abuse, to create healthier communities..." See also the HealthierUS web site.  
  

MHMR develops model program (Texas)
Kerrville Daily Times story - "A financial crisis at the Hill Country Community Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center has brought sweeping changes to the entire Texas mental health system. ... Hill Country MHMR has developed ... a new model of how to do business and treat patients — what they call a disease management approach to the delivery of mental health services. On the business side, the center focused on efficiency, mandating five and a half hours every day for patients and allowing workers to spend the remaining two and a half hours on paperwork and meetings. On the clinical side, they developed a therapy-based program for clients that assessed how much help MHMR clients needed to help them function. That therapy includes medicine, behavioral therapy and helping a patient take control of his own wellness. ... All of this change attracted the attention of State Rep. John Davis, R-Houston, who filed a bill last spring that mandated the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation to implement the Hill Country’s disease management program in all of its centers."  
  

Families may be billed when kin are sent to mental hospital
Omaha World-Herald story - "Unlike prison, the cost of confinement in a state mental hospital isn't totally covered by the state in Texas. The state pays for the poor, but it requires other patients or their families to pay what they can, based on insurance, income, benefits and property. Wisconsin and North Carolina also charge criminally confined patients. ... Courts in various states are split on the issue, said Michael Perlin, a professor at New York Law School who has written about the matter. Some reason that patients should pay because the overriding purpose of their hospital stay is treatment. Others believe patients shouldn't have to pay because the state has ordered them to the hospital, largely to protect the public..."