On the one hand, I’m excited by the prospect that Medicaid eligibility rules might be reformed to cover people at up to 150% of poverty levels, swelling the ranks of Medicaid and ballooning the number of people in Medicaid managed care plans with Parity-compliant behavioral health benefits. On the other hand, [...]

Having just attended the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare conference in Florida last week, it is clear that the behavioral health field – much like the rest of America – is struggling to make sense of sweeping reforms. While the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and the [...]

I am attending the California Association of Health Plans annual conference this week and thought I would share some of what I am observing. For starters, Howard Khan, CEO of LA Care Health Plan and Chairman of CAHP Board provided a keynote that immediately established the context where health plans are concerned. He pointed to [...]

Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will take up the fate of at least one reform proposal. On the eve of that vote, the American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) released a report prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) demonstrating the bill will wind up costing more than its authors are admitting. Talking heads are exploding in an uproar [...]

The American Psychological Association (APA) announced today that it supports H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, as the basis for health reform. This action follows the American Medical Association’s (AMA) decision to do the same. The benefits of the bill cited by the APA include:

Requiring a “basic benefit package” for all plans in the [...]

The question of what to do with employee assistance programs or EAP when Parity legislation drastically expands behavioral health coverage is not new. We have been dealing with this question for more than a decade. The questions take on several different flavors:

Is it true that mental health and substance abuse coverage will be so enhanced [...]

This is not meant to be a political statement though it will raise political hackles. It’s purely an observation and a series of nagging questions that I want to get on the table. Last night I read that the average household of four paid $6,000 in premiums for health coverage in the year 2000.  Only [...]

So much of what we’re hearing, reading and considering when it comes to behavioral health parity and health insurance reform is a function of our urban and suburban perceptions of  health care.  I lived and worked in a rural/frontier state for some time and can recall the difficulties and challenges we faced there and in [...]

Throughout the campaign, we heard a chorus that went something like this: “I want those of you who are uninsured to benefit from coverage similar to mine. Federal employees enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program (FEHBP) have tremendous health insurance. We could leverage these plans, model a solution accordingly, and vastly expand enrollment [...]

The reform debate rages on (and on).  Meanwhile, some very important questions remain unanswered and buried under the weight of “inflammation” rather than meaningful healthcare information.  To say that this process has become inflamed and devisive – hijacked by pundits and strategists from both sides of the aisle – is a great understatement at this [...]