From the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — A huge fight has erupted over rules issued by the Obama administration to enforce a 2008 law that requires equal insurance coverage for the treatment of mental and physical illnesses.
The fight offers a taste of the coming battle over rules to remake the health care system under legislation pushed through Congress by President Obama.

Insurance companies and employer groups are lobbying the White House to delay and rework the rules on “mental health parity.” Insurers and many employers supported the 2008 law, but they say the rules go far beyond the intent of Congress and would cripple their cost-control techniques while raising out-of-pocket costs for some patients.

Advocates for patients generally support the rules, saying they will eliminate many forms of insurance discrimination against people with mental illness. The rules are also supported by the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and House Democrats, most notably Representative Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island.

The goal of the law is to abolish discriminatory insurance practices frequently applied to coverage for the treatment of mental health disorders and substance abuse. Under the law, insurers cannot set higher co-payments and deductibles or stricter limits on mental health benefits than they set for the treatment of physical illnesses like cancer and diabetes. For decades, such disparities have been common.

To link to this story click: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/health/policy/10health.html

On April 15th, SAMHSA sponsored a meeting on Health Information Technology (HIT) System. Here is Dr. Clark’s presentation on HIT implications for substance abuse treatment as it related to CFR 42.  This is an interesting presentation that looks at the broad implications of using Substance Abuse Treatment and HIT.

  42_CFR_CLARK_LECTURE.pdf [1.7 MiB]

One of his recommendations is the need for grants to help implement the use of electronic medical records for substance abuse.  We would love to know what North Carolina providers think about this issue.  Please post your comments below:

State’s Leading Substance Abuse Alliance Votes to Oppose ABC system Privatization, Citing Underage Drinking Crisis as a Key Motivation

Raleigh, NC — Under consideration in the recently convened Joint Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverage Control is whether or not the state’s current ABC system should be privatized. The North Carolina Substance Abuse Federation, an alliance of eighteen statewide organizations committed to the health and public safety of 9 million North Carolinians, has voted to oppose privatization. Research shows that if the control system were abandoned for the permitting of establishments and the private sale of liquor, our children, our communities and our state budget would be worse for it. A prime example is the issue of underage drinking.

April is Alcohol Awareness month in North Carolina and across our state and country underage drinking prevention advocates are working hard to remind people of what the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration referred to in a recent report as a national crisis. Every year more than 5000 young people die from alcohol related injuries. In fact, more youth die from alcohol than from all other illicit drugs combined.

Youthful alcohol consumption affects a person over his or her life span. Critical portions of the human brain continue to develop in to the mid 20s; drinking before that age can do permanent damage to the areas of the brain that govern reasoning, logic, decision making and memory storage. In addition to the physiological effects, there are the effects of abuse and addiction: those who begin drinking before age 15 are 5 times more likely to have alcohol related problems later in life.

In the six States surrounding and including North Carolina, three are “control” states and three are “license” states. Findings show that:

* Control states average 7 outlets per 100,000 residents, whereas license states average 44 outlets per 100,000 residents. That is over 6 times as many outlets (per person) in license states as are in control states.
* Control states average $140,000 per 100k citizens in state liquor revenue compared to an average of only $52,000 per 100k citizens in state liquor revenue for license states.

For more on this story click here: http://carolinanewswire.com/news/News.cgi?command=viewone&id=2825&database=000001news.db