SAAS UPDATE - April 27, 2010

Dear Friend of SAAS:

We are at a unique place in the history of addiction healthcare. A perfect storm is brewing and our industry will be changed in exciting ways as a result. Healthcare reform and parity coupled with changes occurring across the country in addiction healthcare services and policies make this a very exciting and challenging time to be in this field. As your national association and representative in DC, SAAS is leading the way for change. As we focus on Moving the Field Forward right now and in the coming months, we will be helping our field navigate the changes ahead. The fast pace of happenings here in Washington confirms that we are on target with our priorities. SAAS continues to play an important role in ongoing discussions in Congress and with SAMHSA and other Federal agencies by providing comments on many issues important to you, including workforce development, the parity regulations, healthcare reform, funding for IT, and the proposed DSM-V to name a few.  The coming months are going to move quickly as everyone prepares for the implementation of healthcare reform. We will keep our place at the discussion table to ensure that gains made with the legislation are maintained as theory and plans move to practice. We have recently had very productive meetings with the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), SAMHSA, and other partners in the field as we look for ways to work together and support our agencies as they move toward a more integrated approach with primary care.   

SAAS has made tools available to providers who are leaning forward and taking initial steps to Move Forward. Our Benchmarking project in collaboration with NIATx and Behavioral Pathway Systems continues to make strides and you can find out more in a Benchmarking webinar on Thursday, April 29 at 3:00 p.m. EDT. Also available is the upcoming SAAS National Conference/NIATx Summit on July 11-14, 2010 in Cincinnati, OH. Register now to take advantage of the many excellent plenaries and workshops on the schedule for every attendee to build their business and take advantage of the coming opportunities.    So much of what we are able to do for the field is made possible by the amazing advocacy strategy and effort led by our team from the Legal Action Center:  Paul Samuels, Gabrielle de la Gueronniere, and Dan Belnap, as well as the advocacy support from so many of you who contact your Representatives and Senators when we call on you to take part in our grassroots advocacy work. There is still so much to be done and we need your continued support to keep our voice heard. Please consider supporting the effort in two ways:  

• Come and celebrate with us.  On Tuesday evening, July 13, in conjunction with the Conference we will celebrate National Advocacy at a most appropriate location:  The Freedom Center in Cincinnati.  If you are attending the conference, you can register for this event and purchase a ticket with your conference registration. Even if you are not attending the conference, but are within driving distance, come and join us. This is a night to celebrate the successes of the past year with friends and colleagues. We hope you will join us! Go to online registration to register for this very special event.
• Contribute to our National Advocacy Campaign (NAC). These tax-deductible contributions support SAAS advocacy and make it possible to pass legislation like Parity and Healthcare reforms that include services for substance use disorder prevention and treatment. Like prevention, however, this is not a one-shot innoculation. In order for our efforts to continue to have an impact in Washington, the support must be ongoing. Consider renewing your pledge to the NAC or contributing for the first time to a very important cause. 

I look forward to working with you in the coming months and hope to see you in Cincinnati! As always, thank you for what you do to serve individuals, families, and communities. You continue to make a difference.

  Becky Vaughn
CEO
State Associations of Addiction Services

Federal Healthcare Bill Becomes Law; Major Addiction and Mental Illness Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Provisions Included

On May 23, President Obama signed into law H.R. 3590, the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." The new law, approved by the U.S. Senate on December 24, 2009 and the U.S. House of Representatives on March 21, 2010, is expected to expand healthcare coverage to tens of millions of Americans that are currently uninsured, resulting in 95 percent of the legal population being covered.

The new federal healthcare law includes a number of provisions aimed at improving coverage for and access to substance use disorder and mental illness prevention, treatment, and recovery services, a result of strong bi-partisan support in Congress and by the Obama Administration in addition to a unified and coordinated effort by advocates for people in need of substance use disorder and mental illness prevention, treatment and recovery support services.

The following is an overview of key components of the final legislation, including critically important addiction and mental health provisions included in the new law. The below also highlights provisions in the House-approved reconciliation bill, which would amend certain provisions of the new law unrelated to the addiction- and mental health-specific provisions listed below. The reconciliation bill is expected to receive a Senate vote later this week.

Major substance use disorder and mental health provisions in the new law include:

• Substance use disorder and mental health (SUD/MH) services in the basic benefit package. The final bill requires a basic benefit package for all health plans in the individual market and small group markets. All such plans will be required to cover mental health and substance use disorder services.
• The requirement that all plans in the health insurance exchange adhere to the provisions of the Wellstone/Domenici Parity Act. The final bill requires all group and individual plans to comply with Wellstone/Domenici, which requires that SUD/MH benefits be provided in the same way as all other covered medical and surgical benefits.
• The requirement that newly-eligible Medicaid enrollees, including childless adults, receive adequate health coverage that includes SUD/MH coverage. The final bill expands Medicaid eligibility to all Americans up to 133 percent of federal poverty and requires that all newly eligible parents and childless adults receive basic benefits, including SUD/MH services that must be provided at parity.
• SUD/MH in chronic disease prevention initiatives. The final bill creates a national prevention council with the ONDCP Director as a member and SUD listed as a national priority for that council's report to Congress. SAMHSA is required to be consulted on issues related to preventing SUD and mental illness.
• SUD/MH MH workforce in health workforce development initiatives. The final bill includes the capacity of the MH and "behavioral health" workforce as high-priority topics in the bill's National Workforce Strategy section.
• SUD prevention, treatment, and MH service providers to be eligible for community health team grants aimed at supporting medical homes. The final bill lists SUD and MH service providers among entities eligible for community health team grants.

Additional key provisions of the new law will:

• Expand Medicaid coverage to all Americans below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. This will expand coverage to an additional 16 million Medicaid beneficiaries, including childless adults for the first time in many states.
• Create health exchanges for individuals and small employers to pool risk and purchase insurance. The exchanges seek to improve individual and small group insurance coverage by requiring transparency, mandated benefits and other types of consumer protections.
• Provide sliding scale subsidies for individuals and families up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level to purchase or take up offers of health coverage.
• Prohibit insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, charging higher premiums based on gender or health status, and placing annual or lifetime caps on insurance coverage.
• Require individuals to carry health insurance or pay a financial penalty. The individual mandate seeks to ensure that risk is pooled among both healthy and non-healthy individuals, lowering costs and reducing the opportunity for people to wait until they are sick to access care.
• Close the Medicare "donut hole". This provision in the House-approved reconciliation bill seeks to lower out of pocket prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries.
• Allow adult children to remain on their parents' insurance until their 27th birthday.
• Create a national high risk pool for adults with preexisting conditions. Adults with pre-existing medical conditions will be able to buy into a national high risk pool until the health exchanges are implemented.
• Reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over the next 10 years and $1.3 trillion over the following 10 years. According to Congressional Budget Office estimates, the new law and House-approved reconciliation package pending in the Senate will result in significant reductions to the federal deficit.

We will continue to work with our partners at Legal Action Center as they analyze the new federal law. The full impact of many provisions will remain unclear until details are worked out through the regulatory process.

Join with SAAS and NIATx as we recognize May 1st as International Workers' day, chosen over 100 years ago to commemorate the struggles and gains of workers and the labor movement. Most notable reasons to celebrate are the 8-hour day, Saturday as part of the weekend, improved working conditions and child labor laws. In recognition of our workforce, we have created a number of discount codes for registering for the conference in Cincinnati July 11-14.

Limited time only:   May Special, receive $25 off any NEW registration (full conference or one day fee)

Coupon Code:   PC10125

Groups of 3 or more from the same organization / on the same payment invoice-pay only $450 per person for the full conference

Coupon Code:   Dis3Count

Groups of 5 or more from the same organization / on the same payment invoice-pay only $420 per person for the full conference

Coupon Code:   Dis5Count

Only one type of discount /coupon code may be used per invoice. For group discounts, if you have already registered some of your group and need to add additional registrants to meet the minimum requirement, please log in with the username /password provided so that all attendees receive the same price.

We are also in the process of recruiting sponsors and exhibitors. We would like to invite our SAAS members and their providers to exhibit  at the 2010 conference. If you have a particular program you want to show off to the field or if you just want to showcase your organization, there are great rates available for SAAS members. Contact exhibit and sponsorship coordinator Angela Halvorson at angela@toplineprofessionalstrategies.com.  

You Can Also Win A Free Trip to the SAAS Conference and NIATx Summit!! 

Members of the NIATx ACTION Campaign II who submit a promising practice story, will be entered into a drawing - five winners picked at random will receive registration, air travel, and hotel lodging costs for the conference in Cincinnati.

There is no cost to participate in the ACTION Campaign.

For more details, go to:  https://www.niatx.net/Content/ContentPage.aspx?NID=363  

The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs' Bureau of Justice Assistance is pleased to announce that it is seeking applications for two Second Chance grants. 

The first grant is available through the Second Chance Act Reentry Demonstration Program Targeting Offenders with Co-occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders Program. The second grant is under the Second Chance Family-Based Prisoner Substance Abuse Treatment Program. Both these programs further the Department's mission by providing resources to state, local, and tribal governments to establish or enhance residential substance abuse treatment programs in correctional settings including aftercare, recovery and family support services.

The application deadline for both grants is June 3, 2010. For more information and a list of all the funding opportunities from the Office of Justice Programs' Bureau of Justice Assistance, please click here.

 SAMHSA Announces Funding for the Community Resilience and Recovery Initiative

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2010 Community Resilience and Recovery Initiative (CRRI) grants. The purpose of this place-based initiative is to improve behavioral health outcomes through enhanced coordination and evidence-based health promotion, illness prevention, treatment, and recovery support services in communities affected by the recent economic downturn.

Through coordinated services the CRRI will work in funded communities to:

• Reduce depression and anxiety;
• Reduce excessive drinking (and other substance use if the community chooses);
• Reduce child maltreatment and family violence;
• Enable communities to better identify and respond to suicide risk;
• Build a sense of cohesiveness and connectedness;
• Enable coordination across service systems and community organizations; and
• Improve community resilience and reduce the impact of the economic downturn on behavioral health problems.

The intent of the program is to help communities mobilize to better manage behavioral health issues despite budgetary cuts in existing services and to promote a sense of renewal and resilience. The CRRI will use a place-based strategy to implement multiple evidence-based interventions targeted to four levels in the community. It will direct resources towards preventing or intervening early in behavioral health problems. It aims to prevent a downward cycle that leads to chronic declines in community resilience and long term behavioral health issues and unemployment among its residents. The CRRI is intended to develop and evaluate a new approach to targeting communities that are in need of intensive behavioral health interventions due to the recent economic decline. The initiative is not designed to address communities that had extremely high unemployment before the most recent economic downturn. Instead, it is designed to intervene in previously stable communities where the economic downturn poses major barriers or challenges to preserving community-wide behavioral health.

Applications are due May 28. For more information visit http://www.samhsa.gov/Grants/2010/SM-10-015.aspx.

The State Associations of Addiction Services (SAAS) is the leading national organization advocating on behalf of state associations of prevention, treatment, and recovery providers and the individuals and families they serve. For more information about SAAS programs and initiatives contact bvaughn@saasnet.org.