The Washington Examiner (4/20, Cunningham) reported that Medicaid plans got an “initial roadmap from the federal government earlier this month, with a rule proposing directions for how they should conform to a 2008 law known as mental health parity.” The law requires insurers to cover mental health services on the same level as physical health services. Notably, the rule does not lift “a longstanding federal ban on using federal Medicaid dollars for stays in private psychiatric hospitals and state mental hospitals.” According to the article, this “has some mental health advocates worried, amid recent concerns that the seriously mentally ill are getting marginalized.” Harsh Trivedi, MD, chairman of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing, “said the APA wants the final rule to be clearer on exactly how insurers must ensure parity for long-term care for” people with mental illnesses.
Related Links:
— “Psych wards not covered by Medicaid mental health rule,”Paige Cunningham, The Washington Examiner, April 20, 2015.