Funding and Financing | Behavioral Health Today

Legal Action Center Summary: Senate Appropropriations Committee Approves FY 2012 Labor HHS Bill

Prepared by Gabrielle de la Gueronniere, JD, Director for National Policy, Legal Action Center/National HIRE Network

Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved their FY 2012 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill by a 16 to 14 party-line vote. Under the funding bill, most SAMHSA programs would receive funding level [...]

Health Insurance Exchange Proposed Rules Released for Comment

Federal regulators released proposed rules concerning the implementation and governance of Health Insurance Exchanges – the new marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act where individuals and small businesses can purchase health insurance. Behavioral health policymakers, payers and providers are encouraged to review the rule and comment within the 75-day window of opportunity. The [...]

For-Profit Publicly Traded Medicaid Managed Care Plans Rack Up Higher Admin Costs

The Commonwealth Fund reports that for-profit publicly traded plans spent 14% of member premiums on administrative costs, while non-publicly traded plans owned by health systems, local providers and clinics spent 10% of premiums on administrative costs. Provider-owned and operated plans had the lowest administrative costs, with a paltry 8% of member premiums spent on [...]

Behavioral Health Providers Benefit From Health Systems’ ACO Feedback to CMS

There is a real hunger among mental health and substance use disorder treatment providers to understand the concept and machinations of Accountable Care Organizations. Understandably, ACOs are being tauted as the next generation of managed care and the solution to many of our health care system’s issues and concerns. The market is moving quickly [...]

Lamenting ACO Start-Up Costs and other Obstacles

Recently, the American Medical Group Association (AMGA) and the American Hospital Association (AHA) – two titans in the provider space – have balked at the proposed rules concerning Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). At issue for both are the costs associated with start-up and annual operations of an ACO - costs the AHA pegs between $10M and $25M – [...]

ACOs Are Not Your Father’s Managed Care

While attending the National Council conference in San Diego, I am struck by two ACO-related phenomena. The first is the hunger for ACO direction among mental health and substance use disorder treatment providers. The second is the risk of myth-making that abounds when people don’t understand what they hear and read. That’s not to suggest [...]

Budgets Cut to the Bone, Forcing Behavioral Health into Emergency Rooms

We’ve heard much about the 32 states that have cut a combined $1.8 billion in non-Medicaid behavioral health funding in the past 2 years and yesterday we learned about an additional $46 million coming out of the SAMHSA budget as a result of the recent agreement on the Federal budget. The National Association of State [...]

Budget Proposal Would Adversely Impact Medicare and Medicaid Beneficiaries’ Behavioral Health

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., recently touted the House Budget Committee chairman’s alternative budget and how it would turn Medicare over to private insurers for anyone who retired after 2021. Retirees would receive a “capped payment” or “premium support” to buy insurance whereas Medicaid would be converted into a capped Block Grant to states.

What [...]

Defunding Threatens Already Unstable Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Education Programs

More than two-thirds of states cut mental health funding from their general fund budgets over the last two years, according to a report released by NAMI last week. New York’s Governor Cuomo submitted a budget that strips education in that state of more than $1B in funding in the coming fiscal year. California’s Department of Mental [...]

Behavioral Health Economics

Between the President’s budget for 2012 (making remarkably little progress from one week to the next), hammered state budgets, and the lingering sense that we’re still in a recession (which we aren’t), the behavioral health field continues to feel as though it’s been asked to sit at the kids table again [...]

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