3.18.10

CHAPEL HILL — With health care reform at the front and center of the national debate, many are turning a critical eye toward Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, the largest health insurer in the state, to highlight existing problems with the health care system.

One of most glaring problems from the consumer’s perspective: The increase of premiums by some 20 percent to 30 percent for some in the past year, seemingly at random.

Rachel Knowles, a 35-year-old who works for a Durham nonprofit, has an individual Blue Advantage plan and said her premium jumped by 22.3 percent this year.

Knowles takes a medication similar to Prevacid for stomach acid. She started her Blue Advantage plan two years ago and found the monthly cost to be too high, so she switched to a different option with a higher $2,000 deductible.

Unfortunately, the plan didn’t cover her medication in full, and with her new rate increase this year, she now pays $389 a month plus $50 every other month for her prescription.

“I’m so upset with the health care situation right now that there are times when I can’t face it,” Knowles said. “It’s one of those hot button issues for me.”

In an informal survey on its blog, the N.C. Justice Center, a Raleigh progressive advocacy group, found that many customers with Blue Cross reported 20 percent to 30 percent increases, some affecting infants and toddlers, others affecting young women.

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3.5.10

3.2.10

The Coalition, a group of 40 statewide organizations say the economic forecast is grim for people with disabilities and mental health problems in our state.

On Monday night, The Coalition kicked off the first of six “statewide” town halls in Winterville.

You might recall last year, because of huge state budget problems, the state cut more than $500-million from mental health and substance abuse programs.

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2.22.10

Raleigh – The federal government will cut the state’s Medicare prescription drug bill by $152 million, according to Gov. Bev Perdue.

The $152 million is the state’s share of the $4.3 billion in temporary Medicare cost cuts announced last week.

Under a federal law passed in 2003, the states help pay Medicare prescription drug costs for people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. The states’ shares of those costs are called clawback payments.

As she announced the reductions, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the money the states save can be used to help pay for Medicaid.

Medicaid is the fastest-growing part of the state budget, according to a recent study.

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02-19-2010

Raleigh, NC — Last month the Wall Street Journal reported that President Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, used the word “retard” during an obscenity laced rebuke of political opponents. The Arc of the United States and Special Olympics strongly criticized the Obama administration for once again failing to recognize the strength of words and their continual impact on people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Read More

June 10, 2010

CURRENT UPDATE

The Senate passed its budget in mid-May.  The House rejected that version and passed its own version late last week.  Any items that are not in agreement – like this one as there are slightly different versions – are in contention.  A conference committee of House and Senate members has been appointed to work out differences with a goal of passing a budget by June 30.

IMPACT OF BUDGET ON MH/DD/SA

The Coalition recognizes that North Carolina has not yet experienced the full benefits of the economic recovery and will face funding shortfalls.  This does not relieve the state of its responsibilities to provide support for people affected by MH/DD/SA.  North Carolina must build community MH/DD/SA services and supports so that people have the opportunity to recover and to live, and will not need to rely on crisis services, emergency rooms, hospitals, and institutions. Additional reductions and continuation of the worst of these cuts will cause irrevocable harm to people with disabilities and the nature of the programs that support them.  Additionally, continued reductions will further harm the economic recovery by eliminating important community-based jobs.

MESSAGE

• Support the $40M for community services in the Governor’s and Senate budget – reject the House proposal of $18.8m.
• Support the $12M for inpatient community beds in the Senate budget
• Reject the provider rate cuts in Medicaid which are part of re-basing – these will severely impact the ability of Medicaid recipients to obtain services
• Do not support the enhanced mental health services cut of $41M – it will reduce availability and disrupt services

TAKE ACTION NOW!

CHERRY HILL, NJ — Kathleen Dobbs had a good job with solid health benefits and, like most insured workers, her plan included coverage for mental illness and substance abuse.

But in 1996, when her 16-year-old son needed long-term rehab for his cocaine addiction, Dobbs’ insurance company repeatedly turned down his therapists’ recommended treatment plan.

Eventually, the Barrington mom won long-term residential rehab for her son — the bill paid by New Jersey taxpayers. Dobbs wanted more. With a handful of South Jersey mothers of addicted children, she helped form Parent to Parent, a grass-roots, support group which works to get better treatment for substance-abusers and their families. They joined thousands of other mental health and addiction advocates who lobbied lawmakers for change.

“My son took a state-funded bed away from someone who really needed it, who had no insurance,” Dobbs told state legislators. “My insurance company, like so many others, had to pay nothing.”

Fourteen years after Dobbs’ insurance company rejected her claim, new federal regulations issued this month are expected to improve access to mental health and addiction care for 118 million insured Americans.

The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 requires group health plans offered by companies with more than 50 employees to treat mental illness and substance abuse addiction benefits the same as physical and surgical benefits. The law took effect Oct. 3.

The law strengthens a 1996 parity act that required annual and lifetime limits for mental illnesses on par with those for surgical and physical benefits. The new law adds substance abuse treatment.

‘Civil rights’

Managed care providers can no longer require patients to pay higher deductibles, out-of-network charges or co-pays for visits to a therapist than to their primary care doctor. The new requirements also apply to day and visit limits.

“First and foremost, it’s really a piece of civil rights legislation,” said Edward Diehl, president of Seabrook House, an addiction treatment center in Upper Deerfield, Cumberland County. “It’s a fairness doctrine that sets the stage and clears the landscape for what I would project future contention over just really where the rubber hits the road.”

For more on this story: http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/201002140310/NEWS01/2140340

2.17.10

Raleigh, NC – Disability Rights North Carolina released an investigative report today on the dangerous use of seclusion and restraint in North Carolina public schools.

The report, titled “Seclusion and Restraint: A Dangerous Education”, highlights specific examples of inappropriate practices in several counties in North Carolina, including the use of physical and mechanical restraint with chairs and straps and wrongful seclusion and time-outs. Specifically, the report discourages the use of prone restraint, where students are pinned face-down, restricting their ability to breathe.

The report includes specific examples of North Carolina students in Wayne, Cumberland, Durham and Wake counties who have been exposed to these practices and were injured as a result.

“We hope that this report will provide the incentive to eliminate the very dangerous practice of putting students in face-down restraint,” said DRNC Executive Director, Vicki Smith. “It’s time to take action before a North Carolina student dies.”

Disability Rights NC is releasing the report to the North Carolina State Superintendent, the State Board of Education and various Local Education Agencies (LEAs) with the goal that the state will voluntarily ban prone restraint in North Carolina schools and implement Positive Behavior Supports instead. In addition to Disability Rights NC, twelve other organizations have signed-on to a letter calling for the voluntary ban.

Disability Rights NC is also releasing the report to North Carolina’s Congressional Delegation encouraging them to support the passage of the “Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in the Schools Act”. The act will federally ban the use of prone restraint and will require the use of de-escalation techniques and/or the implementation of a student’s Behavior Intervention Plan as alternatives to restraint or seclusion.

For more information, go to http://www.disabilityrightsnc.org/pages/249/school-seclusion-and-restraint-prone/.