[NYAPRS Enews] MHW: Mich.'S Budget Proposal Threatens Access To MH Drugs; NY Advocates Prepare

[Matt Canuteson]

NYAPRS Note: The following excerpt is found in the August 17th edition
of Mental Health Weekly and describes the recent budget proposal by
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm attempting to save the state $7 million
in the state's general fund by placing mental health medications on the
state's preferred drug list (PDL). 

Advocates across the state contend that the PDL will compromise the
quality of care for people with psychiatric disabilities and in the end
disrupting access to mental health medications will result in costly
increases in hospital and emergency room visits, incarceration and
homelessness.

This proposal comes on the heels of a recent study by the National
Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Ohio that  found that while the
savings from prior authorization of the psychotropic drugs would be less
than $6 million, estimates of unintended costs - i.e., homelessness,
lost wages and incarceration would amount to more than $23 million
annually.

NYAPRS members across the state have consistently called for the
protection of medication access as we have traveled across the state
this month in a series of regional forums designed to gather the public
policy priorities from our members in public meetings throughout New
York. Fearing similar attempts to restrict medication access here in New
York because of our own fiscal struggles, the NYAPRS community is
preparing for another year in which we may have to advocate strongly to
fight off possible attempts to restrict access to medications here in
New York.

 

Mich.'S Budget Proposal Threatens Consumer Access To MH Drugs

Mental Health Weekly August 17, 2009

 

For nearly five years a public law has allowed Michigan Medicaid
consumers with mental illness to have open access to medically necessary
medications, but a recommendation in the governor's budget proposal
could mean the return of a prior authorization policy that could
compromise their care resulting in costly, unintended consequences, said
advocates.

 

Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposes to save $7 million in the state's
general fund for fiscal year 2010, which begins Oct. 1, by placing
mental health medications on the state's preferred drug list. The move
would threaten the Michigan Public Act 248 of 2004 that protects many
behavioral health drugs from prior authorization in the state's Medicaid
program.

 

According to the law, if a mental health drug has no generics and is not
a controlled substance, Michigan Medicaid cannot subject the drug to
prior authorization. Protections in that law also extend to medications
for cancer, epilepsy, HIV-AIDS, and organ replacement; however, only
psychiatric medications appear to be impacted by the proposed budget.

 

"The executive branches' proposal assumes a level of savings that would
require the 2004 public law to be undone," Mark Reinstein, Ph.D.,
president and chief executive of the Mental Health Association in
Michigan, told MHW. "To date, no one has introduced a repeal of the 2004
law. This is unacceptable. The mental health community doesn't like that
one bit."

 

Reinstein and advocates across the state concede that prior
authorization compromises the quality of care for consumers with mental
illness. Disrupted access to mental health medications would result in
increases in hospital and emergency room visits, incarceration and
homelessness, not to mention exorbitant costs for those services.

 

A study by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Ohio conducted
last year found that while the savings from prior authorization of the
psychotropic drugs would be less than $6 million, estimates of
unintended costs - i.e., homelessness, lost wages and incarceration -
would amount to more than $23 million annually for Ohio.

 

Reinstein's sentiment was echoed by many in the advocacy community.
"NAMI opposes any changes in the current statute [that would] prohibit
access to psychiatric medications," Sherri Solomon, R.N., executive
director of NAMI Michigan, told MHW. "In 2004 we fought long and we
fought hard" to protect psychiatric medications from prior
authorization, she said.

 

 

 

 

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