Advancing Public Policies for People with Mental Illness, Chemical Dependency or Developmental Disabilities
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SAMHSA: New Behavioral Health Publications HERE
CMS awards $3.9 million to improve access to quality health care services for American Indian and Alaska Native Children here.
NEW ACHP Report: Community Health Plan Strategies for Improving Mental Health
How five community health plans are developing innovative programs to better treat those with mental illness here.
Center for Practice Innovations
Employment Resource Book now available in English and Spanish here
Listening Session: Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 Thursday Nov. 20th 12:30-2. Participant Toll-Free, Dial-in Number: 800-837-1935
Conference ID/Passcode: 32048820
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NOVEMBER:
CLMHD Director's Meeting
Tuesday November 18th 10:30-Noon CLMHD Executive Committee
12:30-2:00 41 State Street, Albany Fiscal Officers Workgroup
Tuesday November 25th 9:00-10:00 am GTM Call-In
Contact CLMHD for all call in information, 518.462.9422
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The overpayments are related to so-called "kick payments" for low-birthweight newborns, who require more care than other babies. The supplemental fees are part of a new model, put in place April 1, in which Medicaid pays managed-care organizations a set fee for each newborn enrolled with that insurer. Supplemental, or "kick," payments of $68,355 to $105,108 per newborn are made for babies weighing less than 1,200 grams, or about 2.64 pounds. Read more |
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CLMHD Testifies at Joint Standing Legislative Committees
on Correction and Mental Health
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Click HERE for a complete witness list.
Yesterday Kelly A Hansen, Executive Director and Darin Samaha, DCS for the Schenectady County Department of Mental Health testified in front of the NYS Legislative Committees on Correction and Mental Health urging the State to adopt a broad strategic framework to divert non-violent mentally ill offenders into appropriate treatment and community supervision programs using the sequential intercept model, reduce recidivism, enhance cross-systems planning and offer better treatment outcomes for offenders under community supervision.
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The NY State Assembly Committee on Correction and the Committee on Mental Health public hearing examined the status of inmates with mental illness in the state's prisons and jails.
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Lawmakers called the joint hearing of Assembly Committees on Correction and Mental Health following these and other reports of afflicted prisoners getting inadequate care.
New York City jails have come under increasing scrutiny since The Associated Press earlier this year first exposed the deaths of two seriously mentally ill inmates.
The hearing also examined other local jails, where suspects go while awaiting trial or serving shorter sentences, as well as the state's prisons that house about 52,250 inmates with longer sentences.
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Health care and corrections have emerged as fiscal pressure points for states in recent years as rapid spending growth in each area has competed for finite revenue. Not surprisingly, health care spending for prison inmates-the intersection of these two spheres-also has risen swiftly.
Yet this trend of rising health care costs for prisoners may have been reversed in many states, according to a new report by the State Health Care Spending Project, a collaboration between The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Total correctional health care expenditures and per-inmate spending increased in nearly all states from fiscal years 2007 to 2011, but in most states it began declining after peaking in 2009 and 2010. Nationwide, prison health care spending totaled $7.7 billion in 2011, down from a high of $8.2 billion in 2009, after adjusting for inflation. The downturn in spending stemmed in part from a reduction in state prison populations. Read more.
Related:Where Hell is Other Patients
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The Department of Health and KPMG will be hosting an operator assisted conference call open to the public to discuss DSRIP updates on Thursday, November 20, 2014 from 2:30PM - 4:30PM.
The call will cover a 20 minute overview of DSRIP updates followed by an opportunity for the public to ask questions and receive answers for the remaining 100 minutes.
To participate please dial (888) 892-6166 ten minutes prior to 2:30PM. An operator will ask for the conference ID. The ID is 36234602.
Please reference the DSRIP Year 0 key dates on the NY DSRIP website prior to the meeting:
here.
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New York Health Exchange Premiums to Rise
Deductibles and co-payments will be flat with individual premiums rising about 4.5 percent in New York's health exchange for individuals and families during its second year. Meanwhile, a nonprofit group's survey shows general satisfaction among those who got insurance the first year, though some reported trouble getting accepted by doctors as a new patient. Read more. Related:New Poll Finds New Yorkers Overwhelmingly Satisfied with Health Reform CoverageNY health insurance exchange to allow consumers to window shop
 The state Health Department announced a new "Plan and Compare" guide summarizing all available plans within each county will be available for consumers to preview before they begin their application. The guide will allow consumers to shop for plans and get premium quotes.
The federal health insurance exchange website for states that do not operate their own exchanges added this window shopping feature Sunday. The open enrollment period will run through Feb. 15. Read more. |
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Risk Model Seen as Reducing Military Suicides
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A call comes in to the Veterans Administration suicide prevention hotline center in Canandaigua, N.Y.
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Military doctors could reduce suicides among soldiers with psychiatric conditions by using a new screening system that flags those at highest risk of taking their own lives, a new study suggests.
The system - a computer program that rates more than 20 actuarial factors, including age at enlistment, history of violence and prescription drug use - would be the most rigorous suicide prediction model available, if it performs as expected in real-world settings. Most suicide screenings are questionnaires with virtually no predictive power and are dependent on truthful answers from people who often have reason to hide their intentions. Read more.
Related: Cutting-edge PTSD Research in N.Y. Researchers in New York are, for the first time, developing medications specifically targeted for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as veterans return home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Read more.
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Report: Most LGBT Students in NY are Harassed at School
According to the report from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, 70 percent of New York's LGBT students who were surveyed said they have been verbally harassed and more than half have been called names or threatened because of their gender expression.
Read the State Snapshot here
Read the national report here |
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