ADVOCACY NEWS FROM NAMI NEW JERSEY:
1. INSURER SETTLES ON LAWSUIT FOR ANOREXIA
2. ANCORA AIMS TO HELP PATIENTS LIVE ON THEIR OWN
3. GLOUCESTER MENTAL ILLNESS/INTERVENTION COMMITTEE
4. NJ LAWMAKER RECOUNTS SONS' PRISON STINT
5. ALMOST HALF OF NEW JERSEY'S HOSPITALS LOST MONEY
6. NEW RULE PARES OUTPATIENT MEDICAID SERVICES
7. CENTER AFFILIATED WITH J&J BEING PROBED
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INSURER SETTLES ON LAWSUIT FOR ANOREXIA
Patients would get $1.2M for claims
The state's largest health-insurance provider has agreed
to cover claims stemming from eating disorders, settling
a class action lawsuit brought by parents of children suffering
from anorexia. Terms of the settlement still need to be
accepted by the federal judge in Newark overseeing the case,
but the lawyer for those who brought the suit against Horizon
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey predicted it will gain
approval. Under the terms of the agreement, Horizon will
not admit any liability but will provide "parity treatment
to eating disorder claims in the future for all current
members who are fully insured".
Read more in the Star Ledger:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1227677869321750.xml&coll=1
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ANCORA AIMS TO HELP PATIENTS LIVE ON THEIR OWN
New Jersey's largest and most beleaguered public psychiatric
hospital opened a self-advocacy center to help patients
prepare to leave and live more independently, Assistant
Human Services Commissioner Kevin Martone announced. Ancora
Psychiatric Hospital is the first of the state's five public
hospitals to launch a self-help center, but others will
follow suit. Staffed by former patients, the center will
provide computers and comfortable meeting space enabling
people to research community services they will need to
continue their recovery.
Read the Star Ledger story:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/ancora_psychiatric_hospital_ai.html
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GLOUCESTER MENTAL ILLNESS/INTERVENTION COMMITTEE
Completing its fifth year, the Gloucester County Mental
Illness and Intervention Committee has been a leader in
training law enforcement officers and others in recognizing
and responding to persons with mental illness on the streets,
and in providing help to discharged jail inmates with psychiatric
problems.
Through the 20-member committee, hundreds of police, probation,
court and corrections personnel in Gloucester County have
been trained in dealing with people who have a mental illness,
in an effort to keep them from being arrested and jailed
instead of treated, said committee member Elaine Goodman,
of Wenonah.
Read more:
http://www.nj.com/south/index.ssf/2008/11/gloucester_county_mental_illne.html
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NJ LAWMAKER RECOUNTS SONS' PRISON STINT
Democratic Assembly leader Bonnie Watson Coleman has long
championed better services for New Jersey inmates and their
families. Her advocacy is more impassioned now than ever
following her personal experience with it. Watson Coleman
got a jolting firsthand look at the New Jersey Corrections
system when her two sons were arrested for first-degree
robbery eight years ago.
Watson Coleman shared her story because she has convened
a series of public hearings on prison reform that start
Friday. The "Second Chance" hearings are designed
to look at all facets of incarceration and to recommend
administrative and legislative changes that will help ex-prisoners.
The first hearing will focus on inmates' families. Future
hearings will look at sentencing, education and training,
mental health, women inmates, and other issues.
Read more from the Daily Record:
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20081121/UPDATES01/81121012/1005/NEWS01
Counting the Cost Hearings schedule (to date):
http://www.bonniewatsoncoleman.com/
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ALMOST HALF OF NEW JERSEY'S HOSPITALS LOST MONEY
While operating margins were up slightly, almost half of
New Jersey's hospitals still lost money last year, according
to a financial status report released by the state hospital
association. In the past year, five New Jersey acute care
hospitals closed. That came on the heels of three other
hospitals closings in 2007, as well as five more filing
for bankruptcy." Betsy Ryan, the group's president
and chief executive, said. "A serious situation is
rapidly turning critical."
Read more:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/report_nearly_half_of_nj_hospi.html
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NEW RULE PARES OUTPATIENT MEDICAID SERVICES
In the first of an expected avalanche of post-election
regulations, the Bush administration narrowed the scope
of services that can be provided to poor people under Medicaid's
outpatient hospital benefit. The rule narrows the definition
of outpatient hospital services to exclude those that could
be provided and covered outside a hospital. The new rule
conflicts with efforts by Congressional leaders and governors
to increase federal aid to the states for Medicaid as part
of a new economic action plan.
Public hospitals and state officials immediately protested
the action, saying it would reduce Medicaid payments to
many hospitals at a time of growing need.
Read the New York Times report::
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/washington/08regs.html?hp
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CENTER AFFILIATED WITH J&J BEING PROBED
Massachusetts General Hospital will investigate conflicts
of interest at a child psychiatry research center it established
with funding from Johnson & Johnson, maker of the antipsychotic
drug Risperdal. The hospital in a statement yesterday said
its grant specified the purpose of the center was scientific
and educational, not to promote J&J's products. Yet
the center's 2002 annual report said it would undertake
studies that "will move forward the commercial goals
of J&J," according to documents released in connection
with a lawsuit against the company.
Read the Bloomberg News story:
http://www.nj.com/business/ledger/index.ssf?/base/business-10/1227677750321750.xml&coll=1
