Monday, June 14, 2004

Mentally ill kids adrift in system
USA Today story reprinted at PsycPORT - "The safety net of care for children with mental disorders is badly frayed and even torn open in some spots, leaving many kids untreated or in a dangerous free-fall on treatments that don't work, mental health experts agree. ...  About one of five Americans younger than 18 has a diagnosable mental disorder, according to the U.S. surgeon general's 1999 report on mental health. About one of 10 have serious, impairing mental illnesses, such as major depression and anxiety disorders, and fewer than 20% of them receive treatment, says the National Institute on Mental Health. Children are just about as likely as adults to have mental illness, but much less is known about childhood disorders and safe, effective treatments for them."  
  

Drug Company Influence Under Microscope
AP story reprinted at PsycPORT - "Drug companies' influence on medical research and on doctors themselves will be under the microscope as the nation's largest group of physicians gathers for its annual meeting this week. Proposals facing the American Medical Association include a measure seeking to make all drug study results public, even unpublished research funded by pharmaceutical companies that might reflect poorly on their products. The measure stems partly from concern over unpublished data linking some antidepressants with suicidal behavior in children. Government officials are investigating the potential link. Another measure would strengthen a policy the AMA adopted last year on 'shadowing,'' the practice of drug company representatives sitting in on patients' visits with their doctors. Critics say the practice is an attempt to influence what medicines are prescribed. Drug companies say the practice is educational, but they sometimes pay hundreds of dollars a day to the doctors for these visiting rights - money the new measure says doctors should refuse..."  
  

Dizzying shift: Pushing mentally ill into managed care (Florida)
Daytona Beach News-Journal editorial - "On July 1, Florida will start moving 73,000 Medicaid patients with mental illnesses into managed-care programs. It's a giant windfall for the big health-maintenance corporation that backed the move and a nasty surprise for advocates who discovered the change weeks after it had been buried in an appropriations bill. Most of all, it's a gut-wrenching leap into the unknown for these patients, their families and the community mental-health organizations that serve them. The abrupt transition is unplanned for, unnecessary and unjustified. It only takes a calendar to illustrate the lack of preparation. The Florida Substance Abuse and Mental Health Corporation Board, created in 2003, was asked to conduct a study of managed care and mental health. That report is due in December. Yet, the appropriations bill mandated that the change begin in July. That seems to indicate that the lawmakers who sneaked this provision into the budget weren't terribly interested in muddying the issue with facts."  
  

A turf war over mental health
Boston Globe story - "Across the United States, psychiatrists and psychologists are engaged in a bruising battle. Two professions normally focused on respecting emotions and listening are instead hurling barbs, accusing each other of caring more about money and turf than patients. The issue: giving psychologists the authority to prescribe drugs. A long-smoldering debate ignited last month when Louisiana passed a law allowing psychologists there to write prescriptions. Psychiatrists, who as medical doctors can prescribe, bitterly fought the legislation and said they fear it will generate momentum in other states."  
  

Health lobby blocks mental health parity
CNN story - "Aided by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, insurance companies successfully have blocked legislation to make them provide equal coverage for mental and physical illnesses if their policies include both. President Bush endorsed the concept two years ago. Today, supporters of the bill are willing to settle for a scaled-back version they hope Congress will pass in 2004. The original legislation has 69 sponsors in the Senate and 246 sponsors in the House, clear majorities in both chambers. It was named for late Sen. Paul Wellstone, a Minnesota Democrat who championed the issue for years. Hastert, however, has declined to schedule a House vote. In the Senate, Republicans blocked an attempt to win passage last fall, on the one-year anniversary of Wellstone's death in a plane crash..."  
  

Illinois DHS slows mental health billing change
Quad City Times story - "The Illinois Department of Human Services, or DHS, is slowing plans to switch the state’s mental health providers to a new billing system amid growing criticism of the transition. . The agency is planning a test run of fee-for-service billing on 25 mental-health care providers, while substance abuse and developmentally disabled programs would all transition to the new system. ... Gov. Rod Blagojevich has proposed the state’s social services providers switch from a grant-based system, where funds are received upfront and groups provide as many services as possible, to a fee-for-service model that would be phased in over several years."  
  

Mental health advocates fight N.C. House reductions
AP story at the Wilmington Star - "Advocates for North Carolina's mentally ill and disabled raised their voices this past week outside the Legislative Building at their annual rally. Chanting "No More Cuts," the protesters' aggravation centered on a $5 million reduction in the House budget for community mental health programs. The reduction is but a small portion of a public mental health budget that clears $2 billion when Medicaid dollars are included. The cut was $10 million before it was reduced on the floor. Even critics acknowledged the one-time reduction won't eliminate current services. So why are they so unhappy? Education and other departments seem to get the priority for expansion money for new programs, even in tight budget times, the mental health advocates contend..."