Download or read book Mental Health Parity Act written by John Dicken and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2000-11 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To address the discrepancies in coverage between mental & other illnesses, Congress passed the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996. It prohibits employers from imposing annual or lifetime dollar limits on mental health coverage that are more restrictive than those imposed on medical & surgical coverage. In preparation for the law's Sept. 30, 2001 sunset & possible reauthorization, this report discusses: the extent to which employers comply with the law & how they have revised their health plans; the law's effect on claims costs; & the steps Federal agencies have taken to ensure compliance with the law. Charts & tables.
Download or read book Mandated Parity in the Coverage of Mental Disorders written by Virginia. Special Advisory Commission on Mandated Health Insurance Benefits and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-09-03 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.
Download or read book Assessing mental health parity written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Education and the Workforce. Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Achieving Parity for Mental Health Treatment written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Advocacy for Mental Health written by World Health Organization and published by World Health Organization. This book was released on 2003 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is part of a series of publications which contain practical guidance to assist policy-makers and planners in member countries with policy development to address public mental health needs and service provision. This volume highlights the importance of advocacy in mental health policy and service development, a relatively new concept, aimed at reducing stigma and discrimination, and promoting the human rights of people with mental disorders. It considers the roles of various mental health groups in advocacy and sets out practical steps for implementation, indicating how governments can support advocacy services. The full package of eight volumes in the series is also available (ISBN 0119894173).
Download or read book The Affordable Care Act written by Tamara Thompson and published by Greenhaven Publishing LLC. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to increase health insurance quality and affordability, lower the uninsured rate by expanding insurance coverage, and reduce the costs of healthcare overall. Along with sweeping change came sweeping criticisms and issues. This book explores the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act, and explains who benefits from the ACA. Readers will learn how the economy is affected by the ACA, and the impact of the ACA rollout.
Download or read book State Mandates for Treatment for Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders written by and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mental Health Parity written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Private health insurers often provide less coverage of mental illnesses compared to other medical conditions. Historically, health plans have imposed lower annual or lifetime dollar limits on mental health coverage, limited treatment of mental health illnesses by covering fewer hospital days and outpatient office visits, and increased cost sharing for mental health care by raising deductibles and copayments. The lack of parity (i.e., equivalence) in insurance coverage in part reflects insurers' concerns that mental disorders are difficult to diagnose, and that mental health care is expensive and often ineffective. However, the 1999 Surgeon General's report on mental health concluded that mental illnesses are largely biologically based disorders like many other medical conditions. It found that effective treatments exist for most mental disorders. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, untreated and undertreated mental illness cost the nation an estimated $204 billion in 1994, mostly in direct treatment costs and lost productivity. Differences in insurance coverage of mental illnesses and other medical conditions are also the result of important economic factors. Studies indicate that the demand response of mental health patients to reduced cost sharing is approximately twice as large as that observed in general medical care. Partly as a consequence, insurers impose higher cost sharing for mental health care. Insurers have also restricted their mental health coverage to protect themselves against adverse selection (i.e., the tendency for plans with generous mental health coverage to attract patients with mental illnesses that are costly to treat). Twenty-one states have laws that mandate full-parity mental health coverage, though these laws do not apply to self-insured group health plans. In 1996, Congress enacted the Mental Health Parity Act (MHPA), which is more limited in scope and does not compel insurers to provide full-parity coverage. For group plans that choose to offer mental health benefits, the MHPA requires parity only for annual and lifetime dollar limits on coverage. Group plans may still impose more restrictive treatment limitations and cost sharing requirements on their mental health coverage. Congress recently extended the MHPA through December 31, 2005. Full-parity legislation was first introduced in the 107th Congress, but it failed to pass. The legislation was reintroduced at the beginning of the 108th Congress (S. 486/H.R. 953), but no action has been taken. The bills are strongly supported by advocates for the mentally ill and have broad, bipartisan support in Congress. Employer and health insurance organizations oppose the legislation because of concerns that it will drive up costs. Health plans frequently subcontract, or carve out, the management of the mental health component of their benefits package to specialized managed behavioral health care organizations (MBHOs). Studies show that the introduction of managed mental health care has helped control the costs associated with mental health parity. Despite the introduction of managed behavioral health care and the passage of state parity laws, mental health coverage continues to be subject to more limitations and higher cost sharing than coverage of other medical conditions. Some analysts argue that parity is not sufficient, by itself, to guarantee equal access to high-quality care and equal levels of financial protection for people with mental disorders.
Download or read book Mental Health Parity written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Health Benefits Coverage Under Federal Law written by and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Special Committee on Mental Health Parity Report to the Legislature written by Wisconsin. Legislature. Legislative Council. Special Committee on Mental Health Parity and published by Legislative Reference Bureau. This book was released on 2003 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mental Health Parity and Mandated Coverage of Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Services After the ACA written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 10 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mental Health Parity Act written by United States. General Accounting Office and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Better But Not Well written by Richard G. Frank and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2006-09-08 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past half-century has been marked by major changes in the treatment of mental illness: important advances in understanding mental illnesses, increases in spending on mental health care and support of people with mental illnesses, and the availability of new medications that are easier for the patient to tolerate. Although these changes have made things better for those who have mental illness, they are not quite enough. In Better But Not Well, Richard G. Frank and Sherry A. Glied examine the well-being of people with mental illness in the United States over the past fifty years, addressing issues such as economics, treatment, standards of living, rights, and stigma. Marshaling a range of new empirical evidence, they first argue that people with mental illness—severe and persistent disorders as well as less serious mental health conditions—are faring better today than in the past. Improvements have come about for unheralded and unexpected reasons. Rather than being a result of more effective mental health treatments, progress has come from the growth of private health insurance and of mainstream social programs—such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, housing vouchers, and food stamps—and the development of new treatments that are easier for patients to tolerate and for physicians to manage. The authors remind us that, despite the progress that has been made, this disadvantaged group remains worse off than most others in society. The "mainstreaming" of persons with mental illness has left a policy void, where governmental institutions responsible for meeting the needs of mental health patients lack resources and programmatic authority. To fill this void, Frank and Glied suggest that institutional resources be applied systematically and routinely to examine and address how federal and state programs affect the well-being of people with mental illness.
Download or read book The Social Determinants of Mental Health written by Michael T. Compton and published by American Psychiatric Pub. This book was released on 2015-04-01 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Social Determinants of Mental Health aims to fill the gap that exists in the psychiatric, scholarly, and policy-related literature on the social determinants of mental health: those factors stemming from where we learn, play, live, work, and age that impact our overall mental health and well-being. The editors and an impressive roster of chapter authors from diverse scholarly backgrounds provide detailed information on topics such as discrimination and social exclusion; adverse early life experiences; poor education; unemployment, underemployment, and job insecurity; income inequality, poverty, and neighborhood deprivation; food insecurity; poor housing quality and housing instability; adverse features of the built environment; and poor access to mental health care. This thought-provoking book offers many beneficial features for clinicians and public health professionals: Clinical vignettes are included, designed to make the content accessible to readers who are primarily clinicians and also to demonstrate the practical, individual-level applicability of the subject matter for those who typically work at the public health, population, and/or policy level. Policy implications are discussed throughout, designed to make the content accessible to readers who work primarily at the public health or population level and also to demonstrate the policy relevance of the subject matter for those who typically work at the clinical level. All chapters include five to six key points that focus on the most important content, helping to both prepare the reader with a brief overview of the chapter's main points and reinforce the "take-away" messages afterward. In addition to the main body of the book, which focuses on selected individual social determinants of mental health, the volume includes an in-depth overview that summarizes the editors' and their colleagues' conceptualization, as well as a final chapter coauthored by Dr. David Satcher, 16th Surgeon General of the United States, that serves as a "Call to Action," offering specific actions that can be taken by both clinicians and policymakers to address the social determinants of mental health. The editors have succeeded in the difficult task of balancing the individual/clinical/patient perspective and the population/public health/community point of view, while underscoring the need for both groups to work in a unified way to address the inequities in twenty-first century America. The Social Determinants of Mental Health gives readers the tools to understand and act to improve mental health and reduce risk for mental illnesses for individuals and communities. Students preparing for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) will also benefit from this book, as the MCAT in 2015 will test applicants' knowledge of social determinants of health. The social determinants of mental health are not distinct from the social determinants of physical health, although they deserve special emphasis given the prevalence and burden of poor mental health.
