Hospital CEO calls Medicaid privatization “horrible” for patients in conversation with congressman
"I think we have a mental health crisis, I believe that," Loebsack said Friday during a visit to
"The access points keep getting further and further away, which, for a population that has huge transportation issues, it is a crisis," said
Since Gov.
"We have an in-patient unit that barely gets an opening, and the bed isn't even cold yet and they're sending folks in," said
The region is lacking transitional facilities or residences for the mentally ill to help them integrate back into society, Sanchez said.
"We have our out-patient clinic, which even with the growth of counseling and prescribing practitioners, we still have a significant waiting time -- which is so unfair for the individual. Why do you have to wait for mental health services? And that's because, there is no room to get them in."
Providing mental health services to children, Sanchez said, is particularly difficult.
"The question is always raised, 'Do you need a child psychiatrist to do that?' or can you have ancillary providers do that. So, that's another area I think has kind of made us think twice about just making sure that we have child services. We want to do it the right way. We can do the services, but we have to do it the right way, and that takes time and training -- and funding."
Loebsack, in part, met with hospital officials yesterday to discuss his new piece of legislation expanding the ability of pediatric primary care providers to deliver family-centered behavioral health care through expedited funding. The Children's Access to Mental Health Services Act would provide an enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentage for administrative costs for state and regional Child Behavioral Health Access Programs.
"This is very basic, just enhance FMAP funding, that's what it is," the congressman said. "Not any more funding, but it will accelerate it and get it out sooner over a five year period than would normally be the case. And that's so there would be money freed up so folks can hire more (health care) providers. That's essentially what it is."
Loebsack, who represents southeast
In April, more than 560,000 financially vulnerable and physically disabled Iowans began receiving their
"One of the biggest issues that we have found is, patients that have been on medication for years -- and they're stable on these medications -- they're asked to stop those medications, restart different medications and have to go through these three levels before the patient can receive the medication that they've been on," said
"The level of complexity with how the transition has been with the (managed care organizations), there is a certain level of comprehension and understanding that you need to have even as a consumer, never mind the provider," Sanchez added. "And to place that burden on mental health individuals, to expect them to understand ... has put such an unmeasurable burden on them that you're almost guaranteed failure."
Richardson called the transition the "worst policy direction" he's seen in his 34 years as a health care CEO.
"It's just piled costs on the providers, on the clinics and on the hospitals because of the complexity. It truly is a horrible direction for patients."
In talking with other states who have transitioned to private
"We talked to Kanas a lot, who privatized several years ago. And so it's at least three or four years down the path and it wasn't getting any better, and that's kind of what I expect out of these MCOs. Their history nationwide has not been positive."
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