'Carving out' mental health care (Illinois)
News Gazette story on changes to area mental health services - "...PersonalCare, which is part of Bethesda, Md.-based Coventry Health Care, declined to answer questions about its new partnership with MHNet, but its contract with that organization follows a growing, controversial trend among managed care companies to "carve out" the mental health portion of their members' benefits by turning them over to a separate company to administer. 'There are good carve-outs and bad carve-outs. It depends on how they're run,' said Mary Graham, a spokeswoman for the National Mental Health Association. On the positive side, Graham said, it can mean people are dealing with an organization that really understands the mental health system and often has good access to specialists. But on the down side, for some members it often means reduced services and less coordination between their mental health and primary care doctors, she said. ... The American Medical Association says it opposes carve-outs of mental health services in general, but because so many people are now being affected by these arrangements, the organization has established some patient protection guidelines that it encourages managed-care companies to follow."  
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