Psychiatric News April 1, 2005
Volume 40 Number 7
© 2005 American Psychiatric Association
p. 14
DBs Increase Involvement In Legislative Battles
Ken Hausman
On the Board of Trustees's agenda last month were the leaders of several
APA district branches that have assumed an activist role as their state
legislatures deal with issues impacting mental health care.
As part of an ongoing program of APA's Board of Trustees to give district
branch presidents a direct communication link to APA leaders, President
Michelle Riba, M.D., invited the presidents of the Michigan and Minnesota
psychiatric societies to brief the Board at its meeting last month in
Arlington, Va., on initiatives in their states and challenges the district
branch is facing.
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Michael Ebert, M.D. (left), APA liaison to the Association of American
Medical Colleges, discusses concerns shared by the two organizations at last
month's Board of Trustees meeting. Looking on are district branch presidents
William Dikel, M.D. (center), of the Minnesota Psychiatric Society and Wayne
Creelman, M.D., of the Michigan Psychiatric Society.
Photo: Jack Douthitt
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She also invited psychiatrist Michael Ebert, M.D., who is APA's
representative to the Association of American Medical Colleges' (AAMC) Council
of Academic Societies. Medical education issues have been a key component of
Riba's agenda during her presidential year.
Michigan Psychiatric Society President Wayne Creelman, M.D., cited the
district branch's troubling membership decline, which, he noted, is far worse
than that experienced by any of Michigan's neighboring Midwestern states.
"This is putting a tremendous strain on our budget, because we are
very much dues dependent," he said. The district branch has submitted a
grant request to APA for funds to enhance membership recruitment and retention
efforts.
Shifting to legislative issues, Creelman pointed out that Michigan is one
of only 15 states without a law mandating insurance parity for mental health
care. This prompted him a couple of years ago to run for a seat in the state
legislature, but he lost in the primary, he noted. Psychiatrists and their
allies in his state will have to do a better job, he suggested, of getting out
the message that psychiatric care is not a budget buster, but is in fact
cost-effective—that treating mental illnesses early will save
substantial health care dollars in the long run.
He said as well that the state medical society in Michigan is fighting a
2.3 percent tax the legislature has imposed on the "gross
billables" of all physicians in the state, though lawmakers are calling
it a "billing fee" rather than a tax. It is designed to raise
funds to help pay for increases in Michigan's Medicaid budget.
William Dikel, M.D., president of the Minnesota Psychiatric Society,
discussed several initiatives in which psychiatrists in his state are working
to ensure that Minnesotans have access to quality psychiatric care. Among
these projects are the Integrated Care Task Force, which is "working
with state government and health insurance companies to structurally support
and fund the integration of primary care medicine and psychiatric
care."
One objective is to end the segregation of mental health care into
carveouts, "which only give the illusion of cost saving—they are
actually more expensive to health plans," Dikel said. If the powers that
be agree to take steps to integrate primary and psychiatric care, primary care
physicians will have improved skills in prescribing and managing psychoactive
medications, and psychiatric services would become an integral part of care in
inpatient and outpatient medical units, he pointed out. It would also dilute
the argument by some psychologists that they deserve prescribing privileges
because primary care doctors are ill equipped to manage the complexities of
psychiatric medications.
Dikel also discussed a district branch initiative in which psychiatrists
are conducting educational programs for primary care physicians in both rural
and urban areas of Minnesota.
Also on the Minnesota Psychiatric Society's agenda, he said, is a project
to have insurance companies use medical-necessity criteria set by Minnesota
psychiatrists and one to address the mental health care needs of people
incarcerated in jails and prisons.
Ebert, APA's liaison to the AAMC, noted the importance of the relationship
between the two organizations since more than one-third of psychiatrists are
affiliated with academic medicine. He cited the significant gains that can
derive from this relationship—for example, that "the AAMC has the
best database of physician salaries" as well as other databases.
One of the AAMC's current themes, Ebert said, is "increasing the
quality of medical education without increasing its size." He cited
areas in which APA and the AAMC share overlapping interests, such as
"the humanistic aspects of medicine," the neurosciences, and
promoting minority medical careers.
Other Actions
The March meeting of the Board was an abbreviated one to allow members to
attend the funeral of Jay Cutler, J.D., who for more than two decades led
APA's lobbying and advocacy efforts and who died two days before the meeting
began. A large portion of the meeting was held in executive session.
The Trustees heard an update on the rollout of APA's new nationwide public
education campaign. Lydia Sermons-Ward, director of the Office of
Communications and Public Affairs, and Jason Young, the office's
communications manager, describing the campaign as a "re-branding"
initiative designed to "put a new face on APA" in the minds of the
media and general public (see page
3).
As the first part of the campaign, the public-relations firm
Porter-Novelli, with which APA has contracted, held focus groups to determine
how the public perceives psychiatry and psychiatrists. Upcoming activities
will be take place in conjunction with National Mental Health Month in May and
will include broadcast, print, and Web-based messages.
They revealed the campaign's slogan, "Health Minds. Healthy
Lives," and unveiled a new logo that will accompany all communications
in the outreach effort. The Board will decide whether the logo will officially
replace APA' s current logo—a sketch of Benjamin Rush that has been
APA's symbol for decades.
In other business, the Board reported out of executive session that it
voted to
- establish a deadline, to be communicated to leadership of the Texas
Society of Psychiatric Physicians, for finalization of the current
negotiations concerning a reorganization of psychiatric societies in Texas
(Psychiatric News, November 19, 2004). If an agreement has not been
reached by that time, the Board will act to achieve resolution of the
situation.
- approve a change in the position descriptions of the APA president and
medical director that makes the medical director rather than the president
the chief executive officer of APA. This will require approval by the
Assembly.
A summary of actions from the Board of Trustees' March meeting is
posted on-line at
<www.psych.org>
under Members Corner.
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Longtime APA staff member Wesley B. Wiggins (right) poses with APA
Medical Director James H. Scully Jr., M.D., and APA President Michelle Riba,
M.D., before last month's Board of Trustees meeting. Wiggins, who has been at
APA for 37 years, is the 2004 winner of the Melvin Sabshin Award, which is
given by the medical director to a staff member who has made
"extraordinary contributions to [APA's] mission above and beyond the
call of duty." Wiggins works as the meeting services coordinator in the
Administrative Services Department.
Photo: Jack Douthitt
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Related Article:
-
APA Offers New Perspective On Psychiatry and Mental Illness
- Michelle Riba
Psychiatr News 2005 40: 3.
[Full Text]
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