Great start for access to mental health services.

According to PBS news, Vice president Biden has announced a $100 million Mental Health Services plan. I am excited for this and very curious to see how this is implemented.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/12/vp-biden-announces-100-million-mental-health-services-plan.html

Schedule

Increased and better behavioral health service is a must.

After the Sandy Hook Shooting I wrote this in my personal blog: "This latest mass shooting should be taken as a wake up call, to remind us that we are in this world together. Today, a woman was killed by her one of her sons who then went on to kill the kids  she taught. As the nation focus on gun control and people hug their kids tighter, we must not forget the kids or adults  that are struggling and lost . We must get to them before they hurt others and themselves."- http://inyinasworld.blogspot.com/2012/12/another-mass-shooting.html

Through out this year I have noticed that most of the suspects in the shootings  covered by the national media have been reported to have mental health issues. As I wrote last year, these incidents must be viewed as a wake up call to us to exam the entire behavioral health system from diagnosis to treatment and after treatment support.

Today, I was happy to see in this article  from CMS summarizing a study they did that found that there is an increased need for behavioral health in the Medicaid population in the six States involved in the study. I hope this issue will be investigated by the other States and something can be done to improve the system.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-clinic-mental-health-20130610,0,7272329,full.story

The financial loses associated with hospital acquired infections are forcing hospitals to find ways to increase the hand washing rates of its providers. According to the New York Times, video monitoring, hand washing coaches, radio-frequency chips, are being used to get providers to wash their hands. Rewards are giving to those that comply and  warnings are giving to those that do not. In one of the hospital when the provides knew they were being monitored, the rate of hand washing increased by 88 percent.

here.

The Obama Administration considers giving Home Health care aides a better wage

If this goes through it will be welcomed with much jubilation by all those who will benefit as the Home Health care aides jobs is one of the toughest out there; it much demands strength, patience, empathy, compassion, skill.  So much is demanded from those in this field and the wages they get in return in most cases is not a livable wage. Most of the people I know in this field work 12 hour days because of the low wages and have a second job to earn enough money to make ends meet.

Please read the article about the new proposal here.

A new study finds that emergency department of For profit out performs non-profit in treating certain occurances

Read the summary of the study here.
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20130402/New-study-finds-for-profit-hospitals-outscore-other-hospitals-on-performance-measures.aspx

Getting people to enroll in the Federally funded Health Exchange

On October 1st of this year, the federally funded health exchange will start accepting applicants and concerns are already being raised regarding getting enough people to enroll to make the program successful and financially viable.. In an article in Kaiser Health news today, several points were mentioned as potential barrier to getting consumers enroll.

One of  the barrier includes money as the states and federal government will need to find ways to get the word as to those eligible for the program as many are not aware of the program. Several state are forming partnerships with nonprofit community groups to help get the work out.  The law does provide funds to the state to help enroll consumers but in case where a State have opted out, it will be the responsibility of the federal government to set up exchanges in the State and to get the message out.

Another barrier is getting people who are healthy to enroll as most people want insurance when they are sick not healthy. This program is counting on the premium of the healthy people to help offset the cost of ensuring the sick and also to help keep premium cost affordable..

Read the full article here

Interesting tidbit about the Medical Loss Ratio regulations

The Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) regulations which is part of the affordable care act, states that insurer must spend 80 to 85 percent of premium on medical claims and quality improvement initiatives, and that if they spend less the money should be returned to premium holders as rebate. What I find interesting about this is the quality improvement piece as I did not know this what part of the law. Though insurers are not required to report  the type of quality measures taken, they must report the amount of money spent on the following initiatives: reducing re-admission, reducing medical errors, patient safety improvement, increase wellness and promotions.
The Common Wealth fund, has published a report that looks at the median amount insurers spent on quality improvement initiative and MLR,  they found  that insurers spent less than one percent of premium on MLR or quality improvement activities.The study found that the amount spent on quality initiatives and paid out as rebate depends on corporate structure. They found  that provider-sponsored insurers spent more on quality improvement measures and paid out less rebate on average  than  non-provider-sponsored insurer, non-profit provider spent more on quality initiatives and paid out less rebate than for profit and publicly traded company also spent more on quality initiatives and paid out less rebate than non-publicly traded company
In 2011 according to the study, insurers spend 11 percent on Administrative cost, 3.9 percent on operating profits, 0.7 percent on quality improvement initiatives, 84 percent on medical expenses and 0.5 percent on rebate.

Please read the Study  here: The Common Wealth Fund.

Planned Parenthood received record support from Tax payers

Good job tax payers. If the opposition to Plan Parenthood knows about fractions and percentages, they will realized the majority of it services is not for abortion.
Via Kaiser news: http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2013/January/09/cap-hill-watch.aspx