Good Governor's Budget for Mental Health Misses Opportunity to Expand Geriatric Mental Health
Overall Gov. Spitzer’s first budget request for mental health is very good, though not for geriatric mental health. His budget provides for 2,000 new housing units, a 2.5% cost of living adjustment, expanded children’s services, efforts to integrate health and mental health, and more. But IT PROVIDES NO INCREASE FOR GERIATRIC MENTAL HEALTH beyond the $2 million for services demonstrations grants that were added to the budget last year.
We will now turn to the Legislature to ask for $3 million more for expanded geriatric mental health services and for training and workforce development.
LOOK FOR ACTION ALERTS.
YOUR ADVOCACY WILL BE ESSENTIAL.
Important: Please be sure to join us on February 8, 2007 for our NYC Alliance Membership meeting at the The United Federation of Teachers, 50 Broadway, 2nd Floor, Rooms E and F, NYC. We will discuss our strategy for increasing funding for expanding geriatric mental health services in New York State. Your support and participation will be critical.
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February 15, 2007 - Geriatric Mental Health Best Practices Presentation: Non-Pharmacological Alzheimer's Treatment with Dr. John Zeisel, Ph.D., President and Co-Founder of Hearthstone Alzheimer Care co-sponsored by the Geriatric Mental Health Alliance and the Brookdale Center on Aging of Hunter College on Thursday, February 15, 2007 from 3:00-5:00pm at the Hunter College School of Social Work - Auditorium, 129 East 79th Street, NYC. Please make a registration by emailing yhsin@mhaofnyc.org or calling (212) 614-6356. The event is free but pre-registration is required. Please click here for additional planned presentations.
May 31, 2007 - Save the Date: 1st Annual Geriatric Mental Health Alliance Conference. Please join fellow Alliance members from around the state for our first annual conference entitled “Geriatric Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities Across the Horizon” on May 31, 2007 from 10:00-4:00pm at the Hotel Pennsylvania. Steve Bartels, MD, MS, Professor of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, will be the keynote speaker. Dr. Bartels served as a consultant to the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health's Subcommittee on Older Adults, and he is a past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. More details to follow.
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Upcoming Events
April 18, 2007 – Save the Date: Conference on Advanced Dementia The Schervier Center for Research in Geriatric Care is sponsoring a conference entitled “Advanced Dementia as a Terminal Illness: Translating Theory into Everyday Practice” on April 18, 2007. The keynote speaker is Ladislav Volicer, an expert in dementia care. Please click here for more information.
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Alliance Update Report
Over the past six months, The Alliance has continued to be active in improving geriatric mental health policy and practice in New York State. We have written a report that will bring you up-to-date on our progress since July 2006. The report covers the following: constituency building, advocacy, the identification of best practices and innovative opportunities, specialty workgroups, and funding.
Click here to download the January 2007 GMHA Update Report.
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Geriatric Mental Health Alliance - Call for Presentations
The Geriatric Mental Health Alliance is seeking proposals to present at our first annual conference in New York City on May 31, 2007. We are looking for presentations on evidence based and other state of the art practices, promising practices, and innovative service models. We hope you will share your expertise by submitting a proposal. The deadline for submission is March 1, 2007. For more information and the proposal form, please click here.
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Many Eligible Beneficiaries Not in Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Subsidy Program
From the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report
CMS and the Social Security Administration must improve efforts to enroll eligible Medicare beneficiaries in a subsidy program under the prescription drug benefit, Senate Special Committee on Aging Chair Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) said on Wednesday at a hearing of the committee, CQ HealthBeat reports. Medicare beneficiaries must apply through SSA to enroll in the subsidy program, which provides financial assistance to beneficiaries with low incomes and few assets. Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in the subsidy program can lose eligibility in the event that they become ineligible for Medicaid, the supplemental security income program or the Medicare savings program. In such cases, Medicare beneficiaries must reapply to enroll in the subsidy program. About 600,000 Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in the subsidy program in 2006 must reapply to enroll in 2007, Kohl said. "And since the application process is so onerous, we know that some seniors will simply give up," he said, adding, "As we enter the second year of the Medicare drug benefit, we have an obligation to make sure it is working for all seniors but particularly for our poorest seniors, who need help the most. We are not there today." According to a National Council on Aging report released at the hearing, between 3.4 million and 4.4 million Medicare beneficiaries qualify for, but have not enrolled in, the subsidy program. The report also found that about 2.9 million Medicare beneficiaries who have not enrolled in the prescription drug benefit have no other medication coverage. Kohl said the hearing marked the first of a series in which the committee will seek "to fix the problems with Medicare's prescription drug program so that seniors can finally enjoy a simple, affordable benefit."
Additional Discussion
Lawrence Kocot, a senior adviser to the CMS administrator, said that the agency has sought to enroll eligible Medicare beneficiaries in the subsidy program through partnerships with grass-roots organizations; local, state and federal agencies; State Health Insurance Assistance Programs; and other groups. Kocot said, "Our work to identify and enroll these beneficiaries is a multifaceted, continuous effort that did not stop with the end of the first enrollment period; rather it has been a sustained and ongoing effort." About 10 million Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in the subsidy program in 2006, and about 35% of beneficiaries who lost eligibility have reapplied to enroll in 2007, according to Kocot. Beatrice Disman, chair of the Medicare Planning and Implementation Task Force at SSA, said that the agency has used "any and all means at our disposal" -- such as mailings, telephone calls and computer databases -- to identify and enroll eligible Medicare beneficiaries in the subsidy program. Howard Bedlin, vice president of policy and advocacy for NCOA, said that Congress should pass legislation to eliminate the asset test for eligibility for the subsidy program because the provision disqualifies some Medicare beneficiaries with modest assets. Half of Medicare beneficiaries who fail the asset test have assets of less than $35,000, and those beneficiaries often are older, female, widowed and living alone, according to Bedlin. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), ranking member of the committee, said that he plans to introduce a bill to simplify the asset test and reintroduce a bill to eliminate cost-sharing requirements for low-income beneficiaries who reside in long-term care facilities other than nursing homes. Ellen Leitzer, executive director of the Health Assistance Partnership, a group that works with SHIPs, said that the programs require additional funds because they address many questions from beneficiaries that CMS or Medicare prescription drug plans should address (Carey, CQ HealthBeat, 1/31).
Physician Shortages in Geriatric Care
From the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report
The U.S. has a shortage of geriatric care physicians, in part because salaries for the field are lower than for other specialties, the Charlotte Observer reports. There are fewer than 7,000 geriatricians in the U.S. -- one for every 5,000 residents older than age 65 -- but about 14,000 are needed to meet demand, according to experts. The shortage is expected to worsen as baby boomers age and require care. Annual salaries of geriatricians average about $150,000, while other specialists, such as radiologists or orthopedists, can earn more than $400,000 per year. In addition, many medical schools have inadequate training in geriatrics because often they have assumed students learn about geriatrics by treating older patients on hospital rounds. As a result, some physicians do not understand the different needs of an elderly patient. With the shortage expected to worsen, "geriatricians will likely be reserved for seniors with the most complicated problems," and "internists and family practice physicians will continue to serve most old people," the Observer reports (Kelley, Charlotte Observer, 1/28).
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