Depression Support Journal

Dear Vicki,

E-mail your members of Congress Read the new regulations Read Mental Health America's comments submitted to CMS Submit comments to CMS (see suggested comments)

As you know, mental illnesses are often intertwined with other co-occurring conditions including substance use conditions, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Yet systems for delivering mental health care are routinely disconnected from general healthcare. 

Intensive Medicaid case management services improve access to mental health services and increase care coordination regarding co-occurring illnesses and conditions. These services are also essential to helping individuals with mental illnesses obtain other non-medical services they need to lead healthy, productive lives in their communities, including housing, education, employment, and other social services.

Access to these vital services now hangs in jeopardy.  The federal government issued harmful new regulations last month that limit Medicaid coverage of case management services.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that oversees Medicaid went far beyond the changes called for by Congress in developing these regulations. The new rules would:

• cut coverage of case management for individuals transitioning out of institutions from 180 days to 60 days or less. 
• promote fragmentation of case management services by prohibiting Medicaid coverage if case management services could also be considered a component of another program. 
• dramatically limit case management for children in the child welfare system by prohibiting child welfare workers or child welfare agency contractors from receiving Medicaid reimbursement for case management services.
• impose unworkable documentation requirements and only allow individuals to have one case manager.

Members of Congress need to hear our concerns. Please send a message to your senators and representative urging them to cosponsor legislation introduced by Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) that would delay implementation of these regulations until April of 2009.