Mental Health News Bulletin!
Welcome to our Mental Health News Bulletin!
We will be regularly publishing articles and new related to mental health, billing, health insurance, and more directly on our blog! As we monitor trends in the industry we want you to be kept up to speed on the latest news, so we will be publishing regular news updates.
Stay tuned for more, but for now here is our news bulletin:
The Gazette’s yearlong investigative series on mental health care in Colorado began in April. Since then, dozens of readers have shared personal accounts about living with a mood disorder or mental illness and the challenges of accessing treatment.
Read more here.
Students at a rural Wisconsin school district are getting access to mental health services with a new video-conferencing system to address a shortage of options nearby.
The closest mental health clinic available to students at the Lake Holcombe School District is about a 20-minute drive away, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. The district is about 40 miles northeast of Eau Claire.
"We found that it was a barrier to care for patients who were seeking services but didn't have a means of transportation to receive the service, and also wasted patient time to try to have the counselor commute to the more rural schools," said Nicole Califf, a behavioral care clinic manager for Prevea Health counselors, the organization that will be connecting with students through video conferencing.
Read more here.
ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS have come a long way. First Insight’s EyeClinic Imaging consolidates patient data, images, and diagnostics into one cloud-based system. Similarly, FoxFire’s Image Management module collects diagnostic images directly into the EHR. Compulink’s Artificial Intelligence runs Advantage EHR which includes built-in chief complaints and ICD-10 coded diagnoses. ABB Optical integrated RevolutionEHR’s SmartFlow ordering technology. EHRs can also improve accounts receivable and help you run a more efficient practice.
Read more here.
When Brett Nelson started at the Behavioral Health Center in 2002, he said the shortage of therapists in the state made it difficult for the center to ensure further treatment for patients after they left the facility. The 74-bed center hosts adolescent and adult patients for two-week stays of acute care and sees patients from across eastern Idaho as well as nearby sections of Wyoming, Montana and Utah.
The number of beds and counselors has increased over the years, but the shortage has been pushed to the next level of care: psychiatrists and psychologists, the Post Register reported.
Read more here.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services recently received $500,000 from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund to expand a program that integrates physical and behavioral health care services for Medicaid beneficiaries with serious mental illness or serious emotional disturbance.
Currently, Behavioral Health Home is offered in Grand Traverse and Manistee counties. The additional funds will be used to modernize and expand BHH operations into several more counties to provide access to integrated services for an estimated 3,000 - 4,000 more Michiganders.
Read more here.
Starting this academic year, the University of Michigan will offer a new student health insurance plan. The new plan is offered by the Blue Care Network of Michigan, a change from the AETNA plan offered in previous years. The plan spans all three University campuses.
According to Laurie Burchett, administrative manager of the University Health Service, students are not automatically re-enrolled in the new plan, and must register under the new plan during an open enrollment period. University students have three chances to enroll in the new plan to earn coverage in 2020.
Read more here.
If your image of psychiatric professionals tends toward the stuffy, Tim Weber quickly explodes that stereotype.
Breezily greeting visitors in a first-floor waiting room at Cloquet’s Community Memorial Hospital, he’s dressed casually, and what stands out — what really destroys the stereotype — is that he’s wearing a baseball cap backwards.
He’s asked if he’d be willing to keep the cap on when photos are taken, but he didn’t need to be asked. He wears it when he’s seeing patients, the 35-year-old nurse practitioner says.
In his second-floor, rented office — slightly disheveled desk, computer, comfortable armchair, comfortable couch, view of a roof — Weber guzzled a Diet Coke while listening to questions.
Read more here.
The beginning stages of a developing mental health program to support students at St. Charles Parish Public Schools will be implemented in the coming months, following unanimous approval by the parish’s School Board at its monthly meeting in August.
What will take effect this school year will be the “pilot” phase of what is hoped will be an expanding program that will help address the mental and emotional needs of students in the district, according to Jerry Smith, St. Charles’ Executive Director of Student Services.
Read more here.
