Reported by Robert A. Donin, MPA, President.
After four years, North Coast state Assemblywoman Patty Berg late Tuesday earned thegovernor’s signature on a bill that requires doctors to tell terminally illpatients about their options at the end-of-life.
“It’s a wonderful day,” said Berg. “I’m so pleased that we were finallyable to do something to address the rights of dying people.”Assembly Bill 2747 succeeded where Berg’s other attempts had failed.
The bill says that a patient who learns they are dying of a terminal disease has theright to ask and be told about all the end-of-life options available to them —from pain-management to hospice care.
A recent nationwide study by cancer doctors found that only one in three terminallyill patients were told about their treatment and pain-management options by theirdoctors.
Those patients who did receive information were less likely to die in intensive careand more likely to receive hospice care.
Among supporters of the bill are TRI-PAC Health and Wellness Advocacy, the Medical Association; the CaliforniaPsychological Association; California Nurses Association; California Commission onAging; AIDS Project Los Angeles; Conference of California Seniors.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Mental Health Parity, or NOT!?
By Robert Donin, MPA, President, TRI-PAC Health and Wellness Advocacy
http://www.2saveyou.com: email: robertdonin@yahoo.com
A new law requiring employers to provide mental health insurance benefits comparable to their medical coverage, mental health “parity” was tacked on to the financial bailout package signed into law by the President on October 3, 2008
It will provide parity in insurance benefits for an estimated 113 million Americans. Employers with 50 workers or less are exempted.
The new law would ban insurance plans from selling higher deductible or copayments for mental health or substance abuse treatment than for medical care. Lower benefit levels would be illegal as would caps on the number of outpatient therapy sessions or inpatient treatment days.
An earlier House version of the bill had required employer plans to cover every disorder diagnosis listed in the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Diagnosis Statistical Method (DSM), the “bible” for diagnosis and treatment. That bill version was opposed by insurers, employers, and the Bush White House.
Insurance premiums may increase as the legislation becomes effective.
The law would provide needed options for some by covering out of network mental health care if people can go out of network for medical treatment.
TRI-PAC congratulates and commends the original author Senator Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota) now deceased, killed in a plane crash. He had a brother who was mentally ill. Senator Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico), has a daughter with schizophrenia.
From the House of Representatives, Rep. Patrick Kennedy,( D-Rhode Island) treated for depression and by his own account “the public face of addiction and alcoholism” after a car crash on Capitol Hill in 2006 and Rep. Jim Ramstad, (R-Minnesota) when in 1981 he woke up in a jail cell in South Dakota after an alcoholic blackout.
It took 12 years for mental health parity legislation to pass and become a reality.
How does one measure let alone determine conditions of success for mental health parity, how will our people be impacted?
More later.
http://www.2saveyou.com: email: robertdonin@yahoo.com
A new law requiring employers to provide mental health insurance benefits comparable to their medical coverage, mental health “parity” was tacked on to the financial bailout package signed into law by the President on October 3, 2008
It will provide parity in insurance benefits for an estimated 113 million Americans. Employers with 50 workers or less are exempted.
The new law would ban insurance plans from selling higher deductible or copayments for mental health or substance abuse treatment than for medical care. Lower benefit levels would be illegal as would caps on the number of outpatient therapy sessions or inpatient treatment days.
An earlier House version of the bill had required employer plans to cover every disorder diagnosis listed in the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Diagnosis Statistical Method (DSM), the “bible” for diagnosis and treatment. That bill version was opposed by insurers, employers, and the Bush White House.
Insurance premiums may increase as the legislation becomes effective.
The law would provide needed options for some by covering out of network mental health care if people can go out of network for medical treatment.
TRI-PAC congratulates and commends the original author Senator Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota) now deceased, killed in a plane crash. He had a brother who was mentally ill. Senator Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico), has a daughter with schizophrenia.
From the House of Representatives, Rep. Patrick Kennedy,( D-Rhode Island) treated for depression and by his own account “the public face of addiction and alcoholism” after a car crash on Capitol Hill in 2006 and Rep. Jim Ramstad, (R-Minnesota) when in 1981 he woke up in a jail cell in South Dakota after an alcoholic blackout.
It took 12 years for mental health parity legislation to pass and become a reality.
How does one measure let alone determine conditions of success for mental health parity, how will our people be impacted?
More later.
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