| Addiction Treatment Costs Shift Sharply to Taxpayers, Report Finds
A study funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that 77.4 percent of treatment in 2003 was paid for by Medicaid, Medicare, and other federal, state and local sources, up from 50.4 percent in 1986. Meanwhile, the private sector's share of the treatment cost burden slipped from 49.6 percent in 1986 to 22.6 percent in 2003. Private insurers, who paid 29.6 percent of treatment costs in 1986, were only paying 10.1 percent by 2003. Total dollars paid by private insurers for addiction treatment fell from $2.8 billion to $2.1 billion during the same time period. Fewer patients were paying for treatment out of their own pocket, as well: in 1986, 13.8 percent of treatment was self-paid, but that fell to 8 percent in 2003. The findings are in line with a 2004 study by Medstat that showed a decline in addiction benefits utilization among privately insured workers as well as falling treatment expenditures by insurers between 1992 and 2001, said Ronald J.
Court makes it easier for patients to enter rehab
Pennsylvanians battling drug and alcohol addiction will not need a second opinion from their HMO before entering treatment programs, a state appeals court ruled. In a unanimous decision released Thursday, Commonwealth Court ruled that group insurance companies and HMOs must cover drug and alcohol treatment costs for policy holders referred to detoxification, rehabilitation and outpatient programs by a doctor or psychologist. The ruling will help about 15,000 state residents with private insurance who seek substance abuse treatment each year, said Deborah Beck, president of the Drug and Alcohol Service Providers Organization of Pennsylvania. It's a really important decision that I think gives power back to doctors and psychologists, said Beck, whose Harrisburg-based organization represents licensed treatment centers and school-run counseling programs.
Drugs; Drug Use, Possession, Dealing, High ...
Joseph A. Califano, Jr., chairman and president of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, will release the findings from CASA's twelfth annual back-to-school report, "National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XII: Teens and Parents" on Thursday, August 16 at 10:00 a.m. at the Kaiser Family Foundation building, 1330 G Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. .
Members appointed to new Recovery Services board
Stark County commissioners on Thursday appointed the majority of members needed to create the board that merges Stark Countys mental-health and drug and alcohol addiction services. The state Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services and the Ohio Department of Mental Health still must approve their respective four appointments to the newly created Stark County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board. Nine of the commissioners nominations to the 18-member board are new faces. Only Perry Township Police Chief Timothy Escola serves on the existing Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services board. Twenty-five people applied for the positions. New members appointed are Gary Ballinger, who retired in 2001 from the field of addiction treatment; Elizabeth Bowen, regional director of development for Planned Parenthood; Margaret J.
Reid's son decides to plead guilty in road-rage incident
Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid's son pleaded guilty yesterday to gun and drug charges stemming from a road-rage dispute. Britt Reid, 22, pleaded guilty to a string of pending charges -- including carrying a firearm without a license, a felony -- as his trial was to start, prosecutors said. They will seek six to 14 months of jail time, while the defense will seek probation. A sentencing date has not been set. Britt Reid brandished a handgun at another motorist in suburban Philadelphia on Jan. 30, the same day his brother was arrested for a drug-related traffic crash, police said. Defense lawyer William Winning said afterward his client admitted what he did and was remorseful. Besides the firearms charge, Reid also pleaded guilty to simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime and drug possession.
BIG DREAM: Survivor of fatal fire wants to ‘give back’
QUINCY - Wayne Devine leafs through a packet of papers sitting on the coffee table of his basement apartment in Quincy.There's information about the Camel Club, a sober bar in Minnesota, which before recently closing was home to everything from Friday night disc jockeys to pool tables to karaoke to AA meetings. There's the Living Room, a former alcohol- and drug-free social club in California. There's an article from Jive magazine on sober partying.In Quincy, there's like 90,000 people, plus people that transit through,'' Devine said. Everyone wants people to have a safe place to stay out of trouble. But there's not enough places to go.''Devine has been dreaming of doing something to change that.He's recently been pitching an idea he's been thinking about for years to anyone will listen: he wants to start a sober club in Quincy.The idea is born out of Devine's own struggle with alcohol addiction in the aftermath of a 1995 house fire in Scituate where he was baby-sitting.
Bill could aid area program
An area alcohol and substance abuse program could receive $150,000 in federal funding under an appropriations bill passed Thursday by the U.S. House, officials announced. Through its Overcomers program, Project Focus provides counseling and placement in rehabilitation facilities for individuals who suffer from alcohol and drug addictions, said the Rev. Kris Erskine, the chief executive officer of the organization. The group is primarily funded through donations and operates on a $15,000 annual budget, Erskine said. The federal funding would allow the organization to build a rehabilitation facility in Bryan-College Station, he said. "We would be able to treat our people right here at home," he said, noting that the group sends individuals to treatment facilities all over the state.
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