Our Health Policy Matters

At long last, the Administration has released the final rule implementing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 . This will extend mental health insurance benefits on a par with medical/surgical benefits to at least 30 million more people.  And, more importantly, we have finally ushered in a 21 st Century response to a set of diseases for which we still often employ 19 th Century treatments – locking the door and throwing away the key. The Mental Health Parity Act (MHPA) was passed in 2008.  Its purpose was to end insurance discrimination against people with mental illness.   For larger group health plans, it outlawed annual and lifetime limits on mental health or substance use disorder benefits when there are no annual or lifetime limits on medical/surgical benefits. And it required that co-insurance and co-payments be substantially the same for both mental health and regular medical/surgical procedures. As it turned out, the...

At long last, the Administration has released the final rule implementing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 . This will extend mental health insurance benefits on a par with medical/surgical benefits to at least 30 million more people.  And, more importantly, we have finally ushered in a 21 st Century response to a set of diseases for which we still often employ 19 th Century treatments – locking the door and throwing away the key. The Mental Health Parity Act (MHPA) was passed in 2008.  Its purpose was to end insurance discrimination against people with mental illness.   For larger group health plans, it outlawed annual and lifetime limits on mental health or substance use disorder benefits when there are no annual or lifetime limits on medical/surgical benefits. And it required that co-insurance and co-payments be substantially the same for both mental health and regular medical/surgical procedures. As it turned out, the...

Exactly a half century ago, in October, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Centers Act into law.  It affected two very different classes of people - people with mental illness and people with developmental disabilities. In many ways, it was a civil rights act, promising to replace large, segregated institutions with integrated, community-based services. It made a huge difference for people with developmental disabilities.  But for people with mental illnesses, its promise is unfulfilled and the dream sometimes feels like it is dying. When President Kennedy signed the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act on October 31st, he did so with optimism. The law specified that the new community mental health centers would offer four services – prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation or recovery – to people with mental illness.  And the result would be that all people, no ...

Exactly a half century ago, in October, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Centers Act into law.  It affected two very different classes of people - people with mental illness and people with developmental disabilities. In many ways, it was a civil rights act, promising to replace large, segregated institutions with integrated, community-based services. It made a huge difference for people with developmental disabilities.  But for people with mental illnesses, its promise is unfulfilled and the dream sometimes feels like it is dying. When President Kennedy signed the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act on October 31st, he did so with optimism. The law specified that the new community mental health centers would offer four services – prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation or recovery – to people with mental illness.  And the result would be that all people, no ...

Former U.S. Congressman Patrick Kennedy was in South Florida last week pushing the radical idea that all people, including those with mental illness, are created equal. What makes this idea radical in 2012 is that we continue to discriminate against the 6% of Americans who have serious mental illnesses.  Patrick Kennedy understands this, and is devoting his life after Congress to fighting on their behalf. It is a fight that affects him personally, as it does the one-fifth of all children and the one-fourth of all adults with a diagnosable mental illness each year. Discrimination against people with mental illness takes on many forms – arrests for loitering, incarceration instead of treatment, and perhaps most commonly in the unequal coverage by insurers for mental health conditions. This last form of discrimination was supposed to have ended with the passage of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.  But the federal “rule” implementing t...

Former U.S. Congressman Patrick Kennedy was in South Florida last week pushing the radical idea that all people, including those with mental illness, are created equal. What makes this idea radical in 2012 is that we continue to discriminate against the 6% of Americans who have serious mental illnesses.  Patrick Kennedy understands this, and is devoting his life after Congress to fighting on their behalf. It is a fight that affects him personally, as it does the one-fifth of all children and the one-fourth of all adults with a diagnosable mental illness each year. Discrimination against people with mental illness takes on many forms – arrests for loitering, incarceration instead of treatment, and perhaps most commonly in the unequal coverage by insurers for mental health conditions. This last form of discrimination was supposed to have ended with the passage of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.  But the federal “rule” implementing t...

A recent story in Health News Florida broke the news that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSFL) has notified all of its participating mental health providers that their contracts are being terminated as of November. Those who wish to continue to see BCBSFL patients will have to sign a contract with a new provider partially owned by Blue Cross and Blue Shield.   Their payments will be cut between 25% and 55%. BCBSFL’s notice caused a justifiable uproar – one that may extend beyond the boundaries of the state.   Mental health advocates see the action as a violation of the federal Mental Health Parity Act, because only mental health providers have been singled out. Florida residents are also concerned.   BCBSFL has four million members, and insures over 7 million people in the state.   They all may lose access to providers as a result of this action.   But up to 80 million on Blue Cross Blue Shield plans outside of Florida will also be affected...

A recent story in Health News Florida broke the news that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSFL) has notified all of its participating mental health providers that their contracts are being terminated as of November. Those who wish to continue to see BCBSFL patients will have to sign a contract with a new provider partially owned by Blue Cross and Blue Shield.   Their payments will be cut between 25% and 55%. BCBSFL’s notice caused a justifiable uproar – one that may extend beyond the boundaries of the state.   Mental health advocates see the action as a violation of the federal Mental Health Parity Act, because only mental health providers have been singled out. Florida residents are also concerned.   BCBSFL has four million members, and insures over 7 million people in the state.   They all may lose access to providers as a result of this action.   But up to 80 million on Blue Cross Blue Shield plans outside of Florida will also be affected...

How do we help political leaders understand that the actions they take can have a profound, long-term effect on the mental health of our population?  copyright Mental Health America, 2011 David Shern, CEO of Mental Health America and one of the nation’s leading mental health advocates, has an answer.   Arguing that “the next century of mental health in the U.S. needs to be fundamentally different” from the last one, he makes the case for a new “vision for mental health now within our grasp.” Speaking at an April 13th seminar sponsored by the Mental Health Association of Palm Beach County, FL, Dr. Shern offered a glimpse into a policy future that could reverse the epidemic of mental illness in America.   “The United States has the highest rate of mental illness in the world,” he began, as he laid out the present state of mental health in the United States. ·          One in four of us have diagnosable mental illnesses each year...

How do we help political leaders understand that the actions they take can have a profound, long-term effect on the mental health of our population?  copyright Mental Health America, 2011 David Shern, CEO of Mental Health America and one of the nation’s leading mental health advocates, has an answer.   Arguing that “the next century of mental health in the U.S. needs to be fundamentally different” from the last one, he makes the case for a new “vision for mental health now within our grasp.” Speaking at an April 13th seminar sponsored by the Mental Health Association of Palm Beach County, FL, Dr. Shern offered a glimpse into a policy future that could reverse the epidemic of mental illness in America.   “The United States has the highest rate of mental illness in the world,” he began, as he laid out the present state of mental health in the United States. ·          One in four of us have diagnosable mental illnesses each year...