In a 3,100-word piece, USA Today (3/3, Szabo) reports that the “Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, forbids” healthcare professionals “from disclosing a patient’s medical information without consent.” Because many practitioners “don’t understand what HIPAA actually allows them to say,” they “often shut families out, even in circumstances in which they’re legally allowed to share information, says Ron Manderscheid, executive director of the National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors.” Former child psychologist Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) “wants to change the law itself, creating a special exception to the privacy rule in cases in which the health of people with serious mental illness would suffer if their families aren’t involved in their care.” The American Psychiatric Association has endorsed Murphy’s bill, HR 2646.

Related Links:

— “Mental illness: Families cut out of care,” Liz Szabo, USA Today, February 26, 2016.

In the US News & World Report (3/1) “Policy Dose” blog, psychiatrist Lloyd Sederer, MD, chief medical officer of the New York State Office of Mental Health, writes, “An estimated 8.4 million people in the US care for a loved one with a mental illness.” The National Alliance for Caregiving just issued a report called “On Pins and Needles: Caregivers of Adults With Mental Illness.” Although “the report did not monetize the value of these caregivers’ service, even a low estimate, say $20,000 per year, multiplies to $168 billion annually in caregiver service value, not including financial support and the incalculable other resources and benefits provided (like a place to live and food to eat).” Put another way, “not only are these caregivers at the heart of our service system for people with chronic mental disorders, they may be its greatest source of financial subsidy.”

Related Links:

— “Take Care of Caregivers,” Lloyd Sederer, US News & World Report, March 1, 2016.

Modern Healthcare (3/1, Dickson, Subscription Publication) reports that CMS data indicate Medicaid and CHIP enrollees “are not getting the behavioral and medical care they need.” While the Affordable Care Act “requires the HHS secretary to establish healthcare quality measurement programs for adults and children to obtain standardized data across state Medicaid and CHIP programs,” the ACA “established it as a voluntary reporting program,” so the data are not indicative of all states.

Related Links:

— “Medicaid and CHIP participants not getting behavioral health, chronic-care services,” Virgil Dickson , Modern Healthcare, March 1, 2016.

HealthDay (3/1, Reinberg) reports, “Elderly Americans whose arteries are clear of calcium buildup appear less likely than others to suffer from heart disease or dementia,” research published online Feb. 29 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests. After examining “data on more than 500 people who took part in a cardiovascular health-cognition (heart health and mental health) study” who were followed “from 1998 through 2013,” investigators found “those without calcium buildup in their arteries developed dementia later than those with high levels of calcium.”

Related Links:

— “Healthier Arteries May Lower Dementia Risk in Old Age,” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, March 1, 2016.

USA Today (2/29, O’Donnell) reports that on Monday, Federal health officials unveiled a deal which “should make digital health records easier for consumers and regulators to access and address safety issues linked with the data.” Almost all companies which “provide digital health records and 16 of the largest hospitals and health systems agreed to stop the practice of ‘information blocking,’ to adopt a universal language and to improve the systems so patients can easily monitor their health information.”

Commenting on the deal, HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell stated, “It’s great to have an electronic record, but if that record can’t be easily accessed by doctors and patients because of clunky technology, then we aren’t consistently seeing the benefit.” She added that some 75 percent of physicians and almost all hospitals now use “EHRs, which means ‘there is now a digital care footprint for almost everyone in this country.’”

Related Links:

— “Health companies will improve digital records, but safety concerns linger,” Jayne O’Donnell, USA Today, February 29, 2016.