We Speak Methadone (and buprenorphine)

Thanks to CherBear for posting this over at AT Watchdog!

http://www.ncsl.org/Default.aspx?TabID= ... 21,928#928


There are no fees for these webinars and archives should be made available for those that cannot attend live or missed any of the webinars. I attended the Medicare webinar today; archives should be available on their website by next week.

_________________
lindsaytomcat@yahoo.com
For those in and around the Chicago area - feel free to contact me if you need help with your treatment.

So I attended the webinar that took place this afternoon on Medicare Health Reform Changes and how it effects Mental Health / Substance abuse.

Overall it was an interesting meeting....They spent a lot of time focusing on how individual states will be able to dole out options and what some of the provisioning changes will mean.

Unfortunately I wasn't at my desk when they took questions and was only listening in on the phone so I was not able to submit any MAT related questions; I will be more interested to see how that plays out at the state level.

And from my discussions with others it sounds like Medicaid is the program that will be changing and affecting us as MAT patients more...The Medicare Program not so much.

However, some interesting facts I pulled from the meeting (Keep in mind I was driving at the time I was trying to jot these down - I do believe the PPT presentation is availble for download somewhere)

*-Currently with both private insurance & Medicare the total dollar amount spent on substance abuse treatment is less than 1/2 percent. (I wonder if that number would change if more MAT Providers actually accepted insurance and helped patients bill for it? Are there enough of us to even dent that number, even if you calculated in every single MAT patient in the U.S.?)

* Of the 16 million adults & children who will be on Medicare as a result of these changes, they are expecting 4-6 million will receive mental health services. That's a huge increase in percentage compared to the # on Medicare now vs. # receiving mental health / addiction services.

* They did touch lightly on the Mental Health Parity laws passed in 2008. I'm interested to learn more about the expected timetables for that act & what it means exactly.

Anyway, it was still interesting (and free) to see what some of the highlights are. Hopefully these changes to these programs will mean only good things for us specifically as MAT patients.

_________________
lindsaytomcat@yahoo.com
For those in and around the Chicago area - feel free to contact me if you need help with your treatment.