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September
13, 2006
IT’S
OFFICIAL – NYS SENATE RETURNING TO ALBANY THIS FRIDAY Timothy’s Law advocates are very excited by the official announcement that the NYS Senate will be returning to Albany this Friday, September 15th, to address, among other issues, Timothy’s Law. Following up on the agreement reached between the Senate and Assembly at the end of the Regular Legislative Session in June, the Senate will be considering passage of S.8482. Specifically, the bill will require employers of all sizes that offer health insurance to provide at least 30 inpatient days and 20 outpatient visits of mental health care. In addition, such coverage will be accompanied by co-payments that are no longer far in excess of the co-payments charged for accessing other health services covered by an insurer. In order to address the Senate’s concerns with regard to small businesses, this bill will hold employers with fewer than 50 employees harmless from any potential cost increases. For employers with 50 or more employees, they will be required to provide coverage that eliminates all arbitrary limits on mental health coverage for a specific list of “biologically based mental illnesses.” This bill, while not ideal, represents an important first step toward eradicating discrimination in health insurance for people living with mental health needs. The Senate has officially announced that they will resume “in Session” at 2:30 on Friday. Timothy’s Law advocates from all over the state are expected to join in this momentous occasion to watch from the gallery as the Senate debates and votes on Timothy’s Law. Tom O’Clair invites all Timothy’s Law supporters to join him in Albany, in the Senate lobby on the 3rd floor of the NYS Capitol, at 1:30 on Friday to show support and watch from the gallery as the NYS Senate takes up (and hopefully passes) Timothy’s Law! IN THE NEWS:
A Chance for Change - State Senate has Opportunity
Now to Act. Editorial GOP senators, including the nine-member Long Island delegation, should act on Assembly bills that would improve budget making, environmental protections, and access to mental health care and prescription drugs. And they should be careful about approving appointments by fellow Republican Gov. George Pataki that are aimed at making it harder for a new, potentially Democratic governor to clean house. On budgeting, Albany must make the process less secretive and less controlled by majority leaders. Reforms include greater disclosure of pork-barrel spending, more use of public conference committees, a later budget deadline, and an independent office - not one controlled by the lawmakers - to certify revenue and spending estimates. On health care, legislators are close to approving the long-sought Timothy's Law, which would require similar insurance coverage for mental and physical ailments. Currently, people seeking treatment for depression or substance abuse often have higher premiums and co-pays - if they can get coverage at all. Fairness aside, businesses in other states have found that the nominal increase in premiums is more than offset by improvements in worker productivity. To reduce costs for the state and consumers, the Senate should mandate bulk purchasing of drugs for all public health programs, as well as the disclosure by physicians of gifts greater than $75 from drug-company sales representatives. This will save money and strengthen consumer confidence that doctors are prescribing the best and cheapest drugs. To improve the landscape and water quality, the Senate can green its record by approving a bottle bill that covers noncarbonated beverage containers and extending the reach of the state's wetlands protection to smaller parcels. If your senator doesn't do these this week, ask him why when he asks for your vote.
Nearly 20 million American suffer from depression, but for many roadblocks to insurance coverage can make getting the right treatment virtually impossible. That seems to be the case for some patients seeking a device that treats patients for a form of depression once deemed un-treatable. NY1 Health and Fitness reporter Kafi Drexel filed the following report. Thirty-year-old Andrea Taylor has struggled with treatment-resistant depression for years, something nearly four million Americans suffer from. So when a new, implantable device that might help was approved by the FDA just over a year ago, she thought she'd finally found a solution. “I needed something. My choices were running low, so I needed something to work,” says Taylor. Taylor who'd been hospitalized and suicidal, looks at the Vagus Nerve Stimulator, or VNS Therapy as a potential lifesaver. The battery-powered generator sends signals to the brain to alleviate depression. But on her first three attempts to get coverage she was denied. “There's no way I would have been able to afford it,” says Taylor. “Even before it was approved I was considering going to Canada, because my best friend and brother live there and it has been approved in Canada. But economically, I mean I have some savings, but I don't have $25,000 to spend on this.” With the help of the maker of the device, Cyberonics, Taylor was finally able to win approval from Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield based on an external review process. But according to Cyberonics, Taylor is only one in a handful of patients who've been able to get coverage. Dr. Sarah Lisanby of the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University says she has waiting lists of patients trying to get VNS Therapy, mostly due to issues with access to coverage. “In my practice, I do have patients who have exhausted all the conventional therapies and still have treatment resistant depression,” says Lisanby. “For them we'd like to have access to something that's now been approved for that condition. Part of the problem in New York State: currently private insurance companies aren't required to provide coverage from mental health treatment issues, even with FDA approved treatments like VNS. “Anything that they can classify as experimental or not medically necessary, they do have the power under current law to deny,” says New York State Insurance Department superintendent Howard Mills. “This situation has given rise to Timothy's Law, which is legislation the Senate is expected to pass, and if Governor Pataki signs it, will require that private insurers will provide mental health coverage on par with all other health insurance coverage that they provide.” In the meantime, Taylor says finally getting covered has given her something she didn't have before: hope. “There's the opportunity that this is something the medicine hasn't been able to do for me, that psychotherapy hasn't been able to do for me. Right now I just merely exist and I'm hoping to live,” says Taylor.
The Aug. 20 editorial "For shame, governor" is to be commended for cutting through the bureaucratese of Gov. George Pataki's veto message of the Aubry-Nozzolio bill that would have banned the use of solitary confinement of persons with a serious mental illness in the state prison system. The Times Union clearly recognized that the governor chose to reject the science that informs us that persons with a serious mental illness suffer badly in the isolation and deprivation of solitary confinement, often irrevocably. And he elected to go with the discredited penal notion that the prison system cannot function effectively unless it is able to lock up all miscreants in "the box" for months and years, regardless of mental status. Those of us in the world of mental health advocacy -- as well as those in the state correction officers union -- were optimistic that the governor's humaneness, concern for the safety of officers and sense of practical politics would win out. We hoped that he would want the Empire State to join the growing number of other states (mostly as the result of litigation in federal courts) that have prohibited placing people with serious mental illness in solitary confinement and have developed alternative treatments -- centered units to address the needs of such persons. Newspaper editorials in 13 communities -- extending from Long Island to Buffalo -- joined with us in urging the governor to sign this bill. Sadly, such was not to be the case. One thing is certain: The statewide coalition of mental health, criminal justice, human rights, religious and other concerned organizations will not go away until this matter is settled in a manner consistent with the scientific knowledge and evidence that pertains to this outrageous practice. We are truly sorry that Gov. Pataki did not make signing this law part of his legacy. ROBERT
K. CORLISS
The
New York state Senate this month is expected to approve legislation
that would require insurance companies to provide mental health
coverage at the same level and out-of-pocket cost as other coverage,
the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin reports. The Senate and
Assembly two months ago reached an agreement on the measure, "but
there was not enough time to vote on it," the Press & Sun-Bulletin
reports. The proposal features the following provisions: More than half the inmates in the country's prisons and jails reported mental health problems within the last year, according to a Justice Department survey released yesterday. The findings, based on a sample of about 25,000 inmates, were drawn from personal interviews and prisoners' own reports of symptoms, psychiatric treatments or medications. The figures are higher than reported in past studies because inmates describing any symptoms of problems like major depression or mania were counted along with those with diagnosed psychiatric disorders, said Fred Osher, director of health systems at the Council on State Governments. Further evaluations would be required to make an official diagnosis of a mental illness. Still, Dr. Osher said, the findings "underscore what every prison administrator knows - that large numbers of individuals with mental health problems are cycling through their facilities." Correctional institutions have given increased attention to mental health treatment in recent years, he said, but the new findings highlight the need for intensive screening. The findings also suggest the need to connect released prisoners with mental health treatment in the community, a goal of the emerging "re-entry" movement that tries to prevent ex-convicts from returning to prison. Prisoners with mental health problems were more likely to have had repeated incarcerations and substance abuse problems and to have been homeless, the study found. Separate findings were reported for state prisons, where 56 percent of inmates were found to have mental health problems; federal prisons, where the figure was 45 percent; and jails, where it was 64 percent. The figure may be higher for jails, the report said, because they often hold mentally ill prisoners temporarily before they are moved to psychiatric facilities. Women reported higher rates of mental health problems than men, and whites had higher rates than black and Hispanic inmates. One in three state prisoners, one in four federal prisoners and one in six jail prisoners had received some form of mental health treatment, often medication, during their current incarceration, the study said. |
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