Wednesday September 1st is the beginning of Recovery Month, an annual observance that celebrates the fact that Substance Abuse TREATMENT WORKS and THAT PEOPLE RECOVER! Recovery Month also gives us a time to celebrate and thank all the people that provide treatment and support those in recovery. Additionally, Recovery Month is the perfect time to educate others on the fact that addiction IS A DISEASE, and that it should be treated like any other disease. Educating the public and Ohio’s elected officials about substance abuse will help to reduce stigma, and emphasize the need to support access to substance abuse treatment. So take time in September to thank someone who works in substance abuse treatment, and educate someone about the disease!
Over the weekend, officers with the state’s eradication unit located and burned over 22,000 plants in Pike County. Those plants, estimated to be worth nearly $22 million, were burned on-site, and took the coordination of multiple state agencies. This was the third big marijuana discovery this month, with the others being in Muskingum and Licking Counties. The eradication unit, which was established 20 years ago, has continued to work hard to fight the increasing marijuana supply grown within the state. or to read more about the weekend’s events, please click here.
On September 10, the National Council for Suicide Prevention (NCSP), the Suicide Prevention Resource Center and the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation are working toward coordinated community events to bring awareness to issues related to suicide prevention. The goal is to get people to “Take 5” to do something around suicide prevention: learn the warning signs, join the movement, help a friend, share the message with 5 others, and reach out to others. If you would like to learn more about this event, please click here, or visit the website: www.Take5ToSaveLives.com.
Attorney
The Health Policy Institute of Ohio (HPIO), in conjunction with Ohio Medicaid’s Bureau of Health Services Research, has released the 2010 Medicaid Atlas. The Atlas consists of a number of descriptive maps built upon county level data regarding certain categories within Ohio’s Medicaid program. The goal of the document is to inform awareness and policy discussions relating to Ohio’s Medicaid program. To see the Atlas, please click here. There are lots of interesting maps, but here is some shortcut information: Mental Health – Page 44; AOD – Pages 46-48; FQHC – Page 41; Rx Utilization – Page 49.
The 2010 edition of the Ohio Medicaid Atlas is a partnership between the Health Policy Institute of Ohio and Ohio Medicaid’s Bureau of Health Services Research (the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services). The Ohio Medicaid Atlas is a descriptive series of stand-alone maps built upon county-level data of certain categories relative to Ohio’s Medicaid program. The goal of the document is to inform awareness and policy discussions relating to Ohio Medicaid.
Medicaid is the state’s largest health safety net program serving over 2.2 million Ohioans, up from 1.7 million enrollees examined in the first version of the Ohio Medicaid Atlas (2004 data). Most of these enrollees are low income children, parents of these children, seniors, and adults who have a specific level of disability. Moreover, for many counties, Medicaid is the largest payer of health care services.
The Atlas is compiled from 2009 Ohio Medicaid administrative claims data (preliminary data, not yet validated by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), the 2008 Ohio Family Health Survey, and the United States Census Bureau’s 2007 through 2009 American Community Survey and Current Population Survey.
On Thursday August 19, 2010 Luceille Fleming was honored with a Life Time Achievement award by the House of Hope of Columbus, Ohio. What a well-deserved honor for a woman who established the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, and helped Ohio become a leader in the addictions field.
I believe that Former Governor Richard Celeste said it all in a congratulator letter that stated “From the day you arrived in Ohio to take the helm of a new department addressing the challenges of alcoholism and drug addiction you demonstrated extraordinary dedication and leadership. You breathed life into the language of legislation and bureaucracy. You sustained that life from one administration to the next, above the partisan fray. And you won the respect of advocates, clients, local service providers and concerned citizens. As a result of your remarkable effort, Ohio became a model to inspire other states at a moment in our nation’s history when such inspiration is in short supply”.
Congratulations and thank you Luceille for your lifetime of commitment to helping those in need of addiction services!
There is a lot of information available about electronic health record (EHR) incentive payments. So much, in fact, that it can get rather confusing. To combat this confusion, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has developed a website specifically to provide information about the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs. Visit this site at: http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/.
Also of note for the behavioral health system, there is an ongoing federal push to extend EHR incentive programs to behavioral health providers. HR 5040 was introduced in the U.S. House on April 15th and S. 3709 was introduced in the Senate on August 5th.
You’re probably asking yourself, it’s time to start what? It’s time to start advocating for alcohol, drug addiction and mental health services. Most times we think of advocacy as an educational process where we go out specifically to educate others on what we believe. This is one way to advocate. Another way is to ask others what they believe and how they plan to support our issues. Then let them know what you believe. Now is the time we must all get active with all of the candidates running for the Ohio Senate, House and Governor’s Office. We know these next few years are going to be tough, but it doesn’t seem like too many folks are talking about how they plan to deal with the upcoming $8 billion budget hole that’s facing Ohio in the ‘12-‘13 biennial budget. How elected officials are going to address this $8 billion budget gap while ensuring that Ohioans still have access to alcohol, drug addiction and mental health services is very important.
So it’s time to go out and ask all of the candidates what their plans are for fixing the budget and ensuring access to behavioral health services. And it’s time we insist on an answer. Don’t allow the candidate to equivocate and talk around the issue. Make sure that they understand that you expect an answer. Then let them know that you expect them to fight on behalf of Ohioans with a mental illness and/or addiction, and that you will hold them accountable for this. If the two thirds of all Ohioans who are impacted by a friend or family member with an addiction or mental illness take action, all of our newly elected officials will understand that they must support alcohol, drug addiction and mental health services! Now let’s go out and get started!
The Coalition for Healthy Communities is an advocacy coalition that consists of 35 agencies (of which OACBHA is a member) that come together to advocate for adequate alcohol, drug addiction and mental health treatment, medications and recovery support services for Ohioans with a mental illness and/or addiction disorder. This week the Coalition is happy to announce the establishment of a coalition website that is now live. To view the new Coalition for Healthy Communities website please go to www.OhioC4HC.org. We hope that you will join us in advocating for access to services for all Ohioans with a mental illness and/or addiction!
A new fact sheet about the federal Mental Health Parity and Addictions Equity Act has been released by the Parity Implementation Coalition with answers to frequently asked questions about compliance with the law. For each of the non-compliance issues, this FAQ document provides a brief description of individual and provider rights under the law. The FAQ is designed to be a tool in helping consumers and providers file requests for coverage and appeals of adverse benefit determinations.
