Monday, July 25, 2005

The Efficiency and Quality of Commercial Mental Health Care in Southeastern Pennsylvania A 33 page report in MS Word format, brought to our attention by Open Minds, published by the Pennsylvania Psychological Association - "Magellan Behavioral Health (MBH) manages 99% of the HMO and most of the indemnity market for behavioral health in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Psychological Association (PPA) gathered data on MBH from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4), and personal reports and survey data from psychologists. With some exceptions, MBH does a good job in facilitating psychiatric hospitalizations when they are clinically indicated. PPA commended MBH for its innovative Assertive Community Treatment Program. However, MBH’s administrative procedures divert considerable resources away from and often disrupt patient care. These problems can be found primarily in authorizations, billing, credentialing, and appeals. The authorization process is expensive and cumbersome, contributes nothing to patient care, and often disrupts the continuity of patient care. The billing process is complicated by the frequency with which MBH or the insurer loses the authorizations or fails to process them on time. "  
  

Unprecedented Federal Alignment Announced to Help Provide People with Mental Illness Opportunity for Recovery SAMHSA press release - " The federal government is aligning resources in an unprecedented collaborative effort to help ensure that people with mental illness have every opportunity for recovery. Six cabinet level departments – Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration have detailed 70 specific steps in a mental health action agenda released today. 'Transforming Mental Health Care in America. The Federal Action Agenda: First Steps' is the beginning of a multi-year effort to alter the form and function of the mental health system. Also announced today is the creation of a Federal Executive Steering Committee to guide the work of mental health system transformation." See also the full report.