Mental Health Parity Rules will be a game changer

I am attending the Scott and White Prescription Services 8Th Annual Conference. Dr Mike Forrester from BHM presented a thought provoking and at times anxiety provoking look at what the  Federal Mental Health Parity Rules which were recently released. He covered the top 6 areas and how they will impact consumers, providers and payers.  The focus was a general overview as well as some details on the pharmacy management component of these new rules that take effect plan years starting after July 2010.  Dr. Forrester correctly predicts that this will be a game changer and that it will increase cost as well as complexity in an already complex area. It was very well received and the audience had a number of thought provoking questions.  We will be release both the slide deck as well as a video of the talk as soon as available.  Please sign up for  BHM Healthcare Solutions’ newsletter to receive access to this very insightful and informative presentation.

Heart Attacks Increased with Depression

The NYT reported on February 24 about increased heart attacks after job loss.  Numerous studies have reported on stress, depression, and  job loss increaseing heart attack risk. The latest study in 2009 led by Sarah A. Burgard, a professor of sociology and epidemiology at the University of Michigan, found that “persistent perceived job insecurity” was itself a powerful predictor of poor health and might even be more damaging than actual job loss.  We recently posted a blog on behavioral health prevention.  We have a series of behavioral health prevention articles on our website that address several areas of behavioral health prevention.  I suspect that although the new mental health parity rules just release will dramatically increase healthcare costs one benefit may be increased behavioral health prevention of  other medical illnesses such as heart disease. We at BHM can help develop cost-effective management programs using detailed data analysis to improve cost effective care.  I will be posting more articles on this topic as reducing health care costs while maintaining quality is a national debate.

Are You Ready For The Sweeping Mental Health Parity Rules

The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act went into effect  on or before Oct. 3, 2009. For more detailed information please see the BHM white paper “Mental Health Parity Preparedness: opportunity for managed care organizations”.    

Below is a timeline for Federal Mental Health Parity:  

1.—The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Act (WDA) was passed on Oct. 3, 2008 ◦This act was passed as a component of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) signed by President George W. Bush — .   

2.  The law was initially slated to go into effect on Oct. 3, 2009.    

3.  Congress deferred the effective date to Jan. 2010 for plans which would have otherwise been covered in 2009 .   

4. On Jan. 29th 2009 the IRS (Treasury), Labor, and Health & Human Services, released the interim final guidelines for this act. —The new “rules” go into effect on July 1st 2010.  

The law was 13 pages but the rules are 154 pages.  There are going to be many very significant changes when these rules go int effect.  This will create both challenges as well as opportunities for both healthcare providers as well as healthcare insurers.  BHM’s Mike Forrester will be presenting a number of target webinars to assist organizations in reducing the risk and maximizing the potential of this new legislation.    

Until you are able to join Mike Forrester at one of his webinars below are a few tips to begin the preparation:    

Keys for Parity Preparation • Review organization history of health care coverage patterns    

• Evaluate integration of physical and behavioral health within your current organization • Procure relationships with outside vendors if in-house care is not possible    

• Carefully reevaluate your plans provider network • Evaluate potential changes in the following areas:  

1. Removal of  limits
2. Change in co-payments
3. Change in insurance
4. Covered diagnosis
5. Pharmacy Benefits