An organization called the Coalition for Parity, Inc. comprised of managed behavioral health organizations (MBHOs) has filed suit to halt the implementation of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Dominici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. This group has as some of its members Value Options, Magellan Health Services Inc., and Beacon Health Strategies Inc. As reported [...]
I read lots of articles online…or I download the articles and read them in .pdf format. Seth found a free tool that is going to make this whole reading and organizing process easier for me. It is called PDF-XChange Viewer and it can be downloaded for FREE! If you like to highlight and make notes [...]
Every two years around this time I am busy completing my Continuing Education Units (CEUs) so I can renew my license as a psychologist. I have done this every biennium since 1980, even though I retired from practice 17 years ago. In Florida, the license is both a practice and title act…to represent myself to the [...]
In early November 2009, the American Psychological Association released the results of their 2009 Stress in America Survey. The executive summary is an excellent way to review the results of the survey in 20 pages. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive and included 1,568 adults aged 18 and older who reside in the United States. The [...]
I try to keep informed about Electronic Medical records (EMRs), certification of those products, and funding for them provided through the economic stimulus bill (ARRA). After all, as a developer and vendor of a behavioral health EMR, I really should know some of this stuff. This week, I was struck by the number of acronyms that have come into common [...]
The deaths of the past week have set me to thinking. The mother of a friend passed away early in the week followed by the wife of a family friend. Then, news of the death of cultural icon, Michael Jackson, was everywhere. I come from a family and culture (New Orleans-based) where death is an intrinsic part of [...]
I checked my email on Sunday night to find two new requests for “friend” status on my Facebook page…one was from a customer, the other was from my mother-in-law. The juxtaposition of requests brought directly home the conflict and confusion that some folks are having about use of the social media sites. Is your use [...]
One of the largest challenges for the small employer (like us) is providing health insurance coverage for our employees. While wages are our largest single expense, we spend an additional 11% of that amount to purchase health insurance for our employees. The costs of that coverage have increased every year that we have offered it. As a basis of comparison, we have [...]
This week’s entry is a guest article by Dr. Vince Bellwoar, a psychologist user of our software whose practice is located in Pennsylvania. Vince posted a question on our SOS user group about how other users measure quality of care. This spurred significant discussion on that group. I am hopeful that it will also stir up [...]
Running a mental health practice or community organization is a demanding endeavor and probably gets in the way of reading some of the huge volumes of info out there. I just thought I would share some quick bits and pieces of information you might find useful. 1. ICD-10 Update: Last October 31, I posted information about an October 2011 [...]
