NC Medical Schools 'Area Health Education Centers' Mention That NC Has Mental Health Reform Challenges/ Circle Game of Value Options & HP Enterprises

Ya think?

These kinds of things just make me want to cry. The medical schools 'education centers' (in Asheville, NC, its 'MAHEC' or Mountain Area Health Education Center') which must fell more trees than Planned Parenthood or the ACLU (yes, I'm glad to support them but give me a break w/ the US mail barrage please)---makes mention that 'NC Mental Health Reform is under way.'

Really? See here their challenging information:

NC Mental Health Reform: Facing the Challenge of Reform

http://www.ncahec.net/program/pubs/InfoUpdates/AHECmentalhealth.pdf

When the associated NC Medical Journal published a piece of mine about a year and a half ago, they ran it as 'Reader's Forum.' I guess I should be satisfied w/ having made some small statement regarding the mess that NC Medicaid has become.

I wrote in the NC Medical Journal, p. 574 NC Med J November/December 2009, Volume 70, Number 6, the following:

"....."....North Carolina mental health reform was instituted

in 2001, with implementation starting in the furthermost

point from Raleigh in western North Carolina where it was

created......Individual therapy and assessment becomes formatted group therapy

rendered by lesser qualified mental health professionals......"

Mark that last line and juxtapose it next to this sad matter re: state of affairs of one of the largest mental health providers in western NC as associated with one of the mental health 'providers' having an affair w/ an underage male and then running off to Florida with the child when the police came to investigate:

http://www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/4076-doctor-authorities-did-not-do-enough

"......With barely any work history to boast of, she turned to her one and only employment asset: a psychology degree from those years at UNC. Mills applied for, and got, an entry-level position at Meridian Behavioral Health Services, a multi-county nonprofit mental-health provider......Joseph and some of the other kids from Meridian were soon “working” at Mills’ home, Petty said, cutting grass and painting walls. His daughters told him of parties, and he and his new wife, Meg, started witnessing the same behaviors firsthand...."

So, you see, it is upsetting to this professional, licensed, doctoral mental health care provider to have to call back and forth between Value Options, the authorizing agent (for outpatient therapy of more than 8 sessions/ year for Medicaid adults) and HP Enterprises (who creates the paperwork re: billing) in order to see where my professional money has gone.

So, today, while I am supposed to be on vacation, I needed to look at my NC Medicaid paperwork to see why in the world my bank account was so low given that I had done all of this Medicaid billing in the last month. Until recently, NC Medicaid webclaims was a dependable way to get paid....that is, perhaps, until HP (yes, that Hewlett Packard) Enterprises took over the 'remittances' arena----or is it Value Options, the authorizing agency that is to blame?

For, its become a circle game and you cannot pin the tail on the donkey anywhere....if you can even find the donkey.

For, you see, neither one of these businesses offers any more paperwork that one can quickly scan. Instead, for the 'remittances' (to understand if there are any billing errors that one needs to address) you go online to the 'remittance' arena at NC Medicaid webclaims which makes sense.....as managed by HP Enterprises----but then, HP Enterprises (aka "we-can-help-you-with-three-patients-only-but-we-can-put-you-back-in-the queu") cannot tell you anything about how many sessions the 'cousin' Value Options has authorized. Thus there is no ability of the provider to easily match up the authorizations and the payment system (everything has been outsources and made piece-meal, including Humana's outpatient therapy to a company in Texas named 'LifeSynch).

Unless, of course, you want to spend your vacation calling back and forth to HP Enterprises and Value Options----the functional arms of NC Medicaid outpatient mental health services.