ADVOCACY NEWS FROM NAMI NEW JERSEY:
1. $51.5M STAYS IN BUDGET FOR THE MENTALLY ILL
2. SENATE FALLS SHORT ON MEDICARE PACKAGE
3. PRESIDENT SIGNS WAR FUNDING BILL THAT DELAYS MEDICAID
RULES
4. GREYSTONE BUILDING MAY HOUSE CHARITIES
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$51.5M STAYS IN BUDGET FOR THE MENTALLY ILL
Pressure from parents and the threat of legal action helped
keep $51.5 million in the budget enacted Monday -- enough
for at least 325 mentally disabled people to leave institutions
for community housing in the coming year. Advocates still
have mixed feelings about how people with mental illness
and developmental disabilities fared in the $32.9 billion
state budget Gov. Jon Corzine signed, but are grateful their
funding remained untouched. The Department of Human Services
had pledged to move far more people than the budget will
pay for.
See the Star Ledger report:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1214973322150410.xml&coll=1
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SENATE FALLS SHORT ON MEDICARE PACKAGE
The U.S. Senate fell just short of moving forward to pass
a package of reforms to the Medicare program, the Medicare
Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (HR
6331). The vote was 58-40, 2 votes short of the 60 needed
close off debate. The bill included a number of critical
provisions for Medicare beneficiaries living with serious
mental illness, including Parity for cost sharing for outpatient
mental health services under Part B, gradually moving the
current discriminatory 50% requirement down to 20% between
2010 and 2014.
Get the complete NAMI report:
http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=June9&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm
&ContentID=63505
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PRESIDENT SIGNS WAR FUNDING BILL THAT DELAYS MEDICAID RULES
President Bush signed into law a supplemental war funding
package that includes a domestic spending amendment to delay
implementation of six Medicaid regulations. The six Medicaid
rule changes -- issued by the Bush administration -- aim
to delay services covered by some states' case management
plans; limit Medicaid reimbursement to public hospitals;
bar federal reimbursement for transportation to school and
school-based care for Medicaid-eligible children; restrict
the types of "rehabilitative" services covered
by federal funding; and reduce federal Medicaid reimbursement
for students at teaching hospitals.
See the Medical News Today story:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113225.php
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GREYSTONE BUILDING MAY HOUSE CHARITIES
Freeholder John Murphy called it "an unexpected gift."
In the midst of a host of decaying buildings turned over
to Morris County on the Greystone campus in 2002, there
was one shining gem: the 76,000-square-foot Central Avenue
complex. Now, with the new Greystone to open soon, the county
has a plan to turn that building into the centerpiece of
a nonprofit mall to house a host of charitable agencies,
many with a mental health bent.
The county plans to lease, for a nominal fee, three former
Greystone employee houses, one block from the nonprofit
mall, to Community Hope and CHBC Inc. for mental health
programs.
Read more:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/morris/index.ssf?/base/news-4/121505976310810.xml&coll=1
