Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007 (H.R. 1424)
Requires employers (with more than 50 employees) who offer health plans that have mental health benefits to ensure that treatment limits and financial requirements applicable to mental health and addiction benefits are no more restrictive than the limitations/requirements on substantially all medical/surgical benefits. Those plans must cover those behavioral health disorders covered under the Federal Employee Health Benefits plan option having the highest enrollment.
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Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 (S. 558)
Requires employers (with more than 50 employees) who offer health plans that have mental health benefits to ensure that treatment limits and financial requirements applicable to mental health and addiction benefits are no more restrictive than the limitations/requirements on substantially all medical/surgical benefits.
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Veteran’s Mental Health Outreach and Access Act (S. 38)
Requires the Veterans Administration (VA) to establish a program to provide readjustment counseling and mental health services to, and would eliminate critical barriers that now put many returning veterans at risk of having their readjustment or mental health problems worsen and become chronic. Specifically, the bill would -- (1) combat the stigma that deters help-seeking by making peer-outreach services a core VA responsibility in helping veterans of service in Iraq and Afghanistan readjust and recover; (2) require VA to establish a national program for training returning veterans for employment as peer specialists; (3) provide VA a mechanism through which veterans living remote from VA health facilities could get peer-supported readjustment counseling and mental health care in much greater proximity to their homes; (4) enable immediate family members to receive mental health and other services to assist in the veteran’s readjustment or recovery; and (5) extend from two to five years the special health-care eligibility period for veterans who served in a combat theater.
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Medicare Mental Health Modernization Act of 2007 (H.R. 1663)
Reduces the 50% co-insurance rate for outpatient mental health services to the usual 20% coinsurance that applies to other outpatient services. Repeals the 190 day lifetime limit on inpatient care in freestanding psychiatric facilities. Provides Medicare coverage of intensive community-based services. Provides Medicare reimbursement for marriage and family counselors and mental health counselors.
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Seniors Access to Mental Health Act of 2007 (H.R. 1571)
Reduces the 50% co-insurance rate for outpatient mental health services to the usual 20% coinsurance that applies to other outpatient services.
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Establishes a grant program to fund systems-of-care to help end the practice of parents giving legal custody of their seriously emotionally disturbed children to State agencies for the purpose of obtaining mental health services for those children through Medicaid.
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Children’s Mental Health Parity Act (S. 1337)
Establishes a mental health parity requirement in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
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Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization Act (S. 1224)
Reauthorizes the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and adds significant new funding to cover more children. Requires all SCHIP plans to include mental health coverage (as well as dental coverage). Improves mental health coverage by repealing a provision in current law that authorizes states to lower the amount of mental health coverage they provide to children in SCHIP down to 75 percent of the coverage provided in the benchmark plans listed in the statute as models for states to use in developing their SCHIP plans. Improves the financing structure of SCHIP to prevent funding shortfalls. Gives states new tools for enrolling eligible children who are not yet covered and flexibility in implementing the citizenship documentation requirement for Medicaid.
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Expands the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover all children with family incomes up to 400% of poverty. Improves mental health coverage by repealing a provision in current law that authorizes states to lower the amount of mental health coverage they provide to children in SCHIP down to 75 percent of the coverage provided in the benchmark plans listed in the statute as models for states to use in developing their SCHIP plans. Improves the financing structure of SCHIP to prevent funding shortfalls. Gives states new tools for enrolling eligible children who are not yet covered and flexibility in implementing the citizenship documentation requirement for Medicaid.
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Child Health Care Crisis Relief Act (H.R. 2073)
Authorizes funding for programs to increase the number of well-trained mental health service professionals (including those based in schools) providing clinical mental health care to children and adolescents.
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Mental Health in Schools Act of 2007 (S.1332)
Expands the availability of comprehensive school-based mental health services for students in communities across America. The bill would increase collaboration between schools, families, and their communities’ resources through partnerships to provide and sustain more comprehensive mental health programs in schools. It emphasizes interventions and referrals for treatment, as well as programs and services that promote positive mental health and prevent mental health problems.
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Child Medication Safety Bill (S.891)
Restricts school personnel from communicating with families and students about legitimate mental health related concerns. The premise underlying this bill is that school personnel across the country condition school attendance on children being medicated -- despite any reliable evidence that such practices regularly occur or that this is a pervasive problem. Given the bill’s threat of loss of federal funding and stern enforcement provisions, classroom teachers and other school personnel could be expected to be highly fearful of the risks of speaking freely with families about a student’s emotional and behavioral well being or of recommending a mental health evaluation.
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Prohibits the use of federal funds for any universal or mandatory mental health screening program in spite of unequivocal science indicating most of the symptoms and distress associated with childhood and adolescent mental health problems can be alleviated with timely and appropriate mental health detection, treatment and supports.
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Authorizes funding to states to increase their submission of records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (while penalizing states that do not act), a national database for conducting required background checks on anyone attempting to purchase a gun and screen for those prohibited from owning a gun, including those who have been “adjudicated as mental defective or committed to a mental institution”. Applies to records of those determined to be a danger to self or others and also to those deemed “gravely disabled” or “lacking the capacity to contract or manage their own affairs”. Lacks adequate privacy protections to ensure these records are only used to determine eligibility to purchase firearms, and could deter people from seeking needed mental health care.
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Medicaid Emergency Psychiatric Care Act of 2007 (H.R. 2050)
Reestablishes an exception to the federal prohibition on Medicaid reimbursement for care provided in institutions for mental diseases (IMDs) for emergency services provided by private psychiatric facilities as required by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) This exception could create powerful incentives for hospitals and IMDs to deem all indigent adults who present with acute psychiatric symptoms as having emergency medical conditions for indefinite amounts of time even if the symptoms could be better managed on an outpatient basis.
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