Monday, September 27, 2004

Reduction in mental health payments not without costs (Indiana)
Column in the Indianapolis Star by Ruth Holladay - "Marjorie Towell just got the news late Thursday -- Medicaid is cutting its reimbursement for patients in psychiatric facilities in Indiana. In the past, the federal, state-run program paid $408 a day to provide services. Beginning Nov. 1, she says, Medicaid will cut that figure to $309. 'That represents a huge cost reduction,' says Towell, executive director of the Marion County Mental Health Association and a veteran in the mental health wars now raging across the land. The state already has closed down so much and reduced care for people with mental health needs, she adds. Now, she is trying to calculate: How will this latest move affect the services still in play? It is a rhetorical question. She knows the answer, and so, very likely, do you...."