Alexandra Forbes, M.A., Legislative Chair

The VPA  legislative committee has been working on a number of issues all summer in conjunction with other professional and advocacy groups. We are committed to act diligently to promote our initiatives in a number of ways as we approach the 2009 legislative season.

This last session an amended S.114 was signed by the Governor on May 14, 2008.  Now called: ENHANCING REGULATION FOR PROGRESS TOWARD MENTAL HEALTH PARITY Unfortunately for mental health patients and clinicians, legislators decided to allow the original (S.114) bill to be substituted for a regulatory bill from Banking and Insurance (BISHCA).

The original bill had a number of goals including, eliminating separate managed carve-out contracts, mandate managed care reviews to be only as intensive for mental health and substance abuse as it is for all other medical care and addressed the discriminatory manner that the insurance and managed care companies formulate their reimbursements for mental health and substance abuse outpatient treatments. Even after articulate and impressive contact with legislators and numerous sessions of testimony, the committee decided not to "mandate" that insurance companies provide for full parity of mental health and substance abuse conditions like other medical treatments. The regulatory bill #142 that was crafted by the Insurance regulatory administration (please see Addendum A) is leading to expanding the scope of regulation over managed care companies. This bill is now in a rulemaking process that includes input from a range of stakeholders including the Mental Health Commissioner about a number of issues.

VPA is in a crucial and important position to impact regulatory and legislative activities as they impact on the delivery of mental health services in Vermont. We have been asked to participate in the rule-making process. We are continuing to attend meetings and to meet with concerned parties (listed above) as well as with Christine Oliver at BISHCA, Michael Hartman (Commissioner of Mental Health) and legislators who have been involved with the legislation. We have plans to continue holding public forums to help articulate and educate the public and policy makers about current behaviors and policies of the managed care companies as they impact access to MH/SA treatment public and legislative hearings.  It appears that clinicians are having some positive change in interactions with Magellan as a result of these discussions at the Statehouse. The large impact that our small working group can have on mental health policy and industry behavior may be of critical benefit for Psychologists across the country by setting precedent in these political arenas.