SPRING 2009

SOCIAL ISSUES FORUM REPORTS

Submitted by Jon Girvetz, Ph.D.
831-425-0272
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Co-chair, MBPA Contemporary Issues in Psychology Committee

American Psychological Association Practice Organization - Healthcare Reform Report

Subject: Information Alert! APAPO Efforts on Health Care Reform
From: Marilyn Richmond, J.D., Assistant Executive Director for Government Relations
Re: APAPO Efforts on Health Care Reform

President Obama has identified electronic health information technology (HIT) systems as a cornerstone of his health care reform plan.  Congress, following the President’s leadership, recently enacted the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act as part of the economic stimulus package to encourage the development of a national, interoperable electronic health records network to provide better care to patients and introduce cost-saving efficiencies.  Strong interests have pushed to implement HIT without regard to protecting the privacy of patient records.  Just last year, we worked with our allies in the mental health community and fought hard to keep bills with inadequate patient protections from becoming law.  In the APA Practice Organization’s first major victory on health care reform in 2009, we succeeded in ensuring the bill contained comprehensive records privacy and security provisions.

Congress shares the President’s commitment to making health care reform a priority, yet beyond the passage of the HITECH Act, health care reform is not yet moving as quickly as some had anticipated.  However, certain broad parameters of what the Administration and legislators envision have taken form.  And our government relations team is hard at work meeting with legislators and participating in coalitions to ensure that psychology’s priorities are well-represented and included as health care reform packages begin to emerge.

Health care reform is not expected to result in a single-payer system that ensures universal health coverage.  Rather, employer-based health insurance coverage would be preserved.  Coverage of the uninsured and underinsured would be accomplished by expanding current federal programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and creating a national insurance “exchange” to foster more options for private coverage.

APAPO’s advocacy efforts are guided by the principles for reform approved by the APA Council in 2007:

1. Everyone should have coverage that provides affordable health care for all basic services.
2. Basic health care services eliminate the artificial distinction between “mental” and “physical” health, recognize the inseparable relationship between mental and physical well-being, and offer access to treatment for “mental health conditions” equivalent in all respects to access for “physical health conditions”.
3. Basic health care services include the psychological treatment of physical conditions in order to maximize rehabilitation and quality of life.
4. Basic health care services include appropriate prevention services that address the role that behavior plays in seven of the ten leading causes of mortality and morbidity.

As health care reform continues to take shape, APAPO is advocating for Practice is several ways. As primary care is given prominence, we want to be sure that psychologists are fully authorized to participate in the delivery of these services, and that the legislation integrates mental and behavioral services within primary care. And, as preventive services are envisioned as a way to reduce costs, we must make sure that screening for depression and other key mental health services will be included. Also, we want to make sure that mental health benefits are included and covered at parity in the national insurance pool envisioned in the reform plan.

Small market reform may also emerge as a key issue. APAPO is participating in a coalition that is working to preserve state laws on consumer protections and mandated benefits like mental health parity, as we did in the 2006 debate on “HIMMA.”

Next week, Psychology leaders from throughout the country will participate in the APAPO State Leadership Conference and take messages about health care reform to over 300 meetings on Capitol Hill. Our government relations team has prepared two fact sheets on the issue:

• “Fully Integrate Mental Health Services in Health Care Reform” builds on the success of last year’s mental health parity law by arguing that psychologists and psychological services should be included in every facet of reform (http://www.apapractice.org/apo/in_the_news/healthcare_reform.html#)
• “Health Care Reform: Congress Should Ensure that Psychologists’ Services Are Key in Primary Care Initiatives” elaborates on the role of psychologists in the health system (http://www.apapractice.org/apo/in_the_news/integrated_care_factsheet.html#)

Please stay tuned in the weeks and months ahead as health care reform moves to the front burner. We will need your grassroots support to ensure that Psychology’s priorities are a central component of improving our health care system.