|
Yolanda’s Law
would require coverage to
assist children
(July 2008
Issue)
By Elinor Nelson
Yolanda's Law was supposed to commemorate a teenager struggling
with mental illness who was to be its poster child in an uplifting
way. Sadly, in January she took her own life and now the Massachusetts
legislation memorializes Yolanda and stands as a symbol for keeping
other children from that end. The hope is that it will do for private
insurance what the verdict in Rosie D. v. Romney did for Medicaid
- require coverage for services that will diagnose and properly
treat children with mental illness.
Rep. Ruth Balser, Ph.D, (D-Newton), the first clinical psychologist
to serve in the Massachusetts Legislature and one of the bill's
lead sponsors explains that Yolanda's Law "puts the issue on the
map this year." This is the bill's first try at passage; by June
it had passed through two committees and was pending in the Senate
Ways and Means Committee. The session ends with summer's end and
while "a lot can happen in two months," time will tell whether the
legislation passes the first time around.
One of the more controversial provisions of the bill provides for
insurance reimbursement for "collateral services" or conversations
between primary care practitioners and teachers, therapists and
any mental health professionals working with the child. Currently,
most families provide their own case management; Yolanda's Law aims
to relieve the families of this burden so that they can focus on
caring for their children. But, Balser states, the insurance industry
is opposing these pay-ments, claiming that these services are already
included in their payments to practitioners.
Less controversial is the requirement of mental health screening
by pediatricians as well as screening for children in child care
and preschool settings. The Rosie D. verdict already requires Medicaid
reimbursement for these services.
Yolanda's Law also seeks to address the problem of "stuck kids,"
whose stay in acute care settings is delayed beyond their time of
treatment because of insufficient community and mental health services.
The legislation would require the Executive Office of Health and
Human Services to implement policies and programs to track the children
and move them to community-based programs as soon as appropriate.
The goal is to provide early diagnosis and treatment of mental
illness, the lack of which is "a huge problem for all children,"
says Laurie Martinelli, J.D., MPH, executive director of the National
Alliance on Mental Illness of Massachusetts (NAMI Mass). According
to a recent NAMI Mass report, in 2003 more than 100,000 children
and adolescents in Massachusetts were facing serious emotional disturbance
and mental illness. Massachusetts now has, it says, a "rare opportunity
to fix what is broken."
|
