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so much for caring for our military.

Steve

Well-known member
I was a bit stunned,.. all you hear these days is how mental health and drug treatment means so much to the liberals and any cut causes another heroin overdose and it is all Trumps fault... but this new change can't have just come about over night.



In March, Brooks and behavioral healthcare therapists caring for beneficiaries across TRICARE’s 10-state South Region received new “contract packets” inviting them to continue to see their patients but as members of new behavioral healthcare network, this one run directly by Humana Military and with a revised fee deal.

The new “payment arrangement,” Brooks was startled to discover, would have her accepting a “30 percent” discount off TRICARE maximum allowable charges. By law, the TRICARE maximums can’t exceed Medicare rates.

Brooks reviewed her current TRICARE contract, signed a few years ago with Humana sub-contractor ValueOptions, and found she already was accepting 10 percent less than Medicare pays. The new contract, to take effect Jan. 1, would have Brooks accept another 20 percent cut on her therapy services.

“By reducing reimbursement rates so drastically,” Brooks warned, “Humana is creating a situation where working for TRICARE becomes an entry-level therapy position.

For “a trauma therapist working with the military community, trust is a very big issue,” Brooks added. “Many of my clients with PTSD have told me that previous therapy was not effective because they were sent to a young person with no military experience whom they could not relate to” and the dropout rate was high.

Brooks is skeptical. More than 90 percent of her patients, she said, have military ties, almost 80 percent of those have PTSD. Therapists most likely to have succeed in treating them, she said, “have worked with the community long enough to develop a cultural competency. With time, they become familiar with the unique environment, can speak the language — where acronyms abound — and really understand that ‘duty, honor, country’ is not just a slogan to these individuals.”

cuts are needed and I believe they can be made but our vets are not the place to start.

start with the 20 something criminal who has never held a job on Medicaid/obmamacare standing at the methadone clinic every morning waiting for his/her/it's free fix... and when the liberals whine ask them why they allowed this.
 

mrj

Well-known member
Steve, you just make too much sense with your suggestions for improving care for military people!

It has bothered me for a long time that 'addictions' have been declared a medical condition and I wonder how many times some have qualified for 'treatment', gone back into that life and had treatment multiple times? That is SO wrong. In the first place, calling illegal activities such as using drugs illegally an 'illness' is serving no one well. Sometimes tough love is the better answer. A little suffering of consequences of ones actions should result in more effective lessons learned.

mrj
 

Steve

Well-known member
Methadone is considered treatment, but is really just a "fix" until the addict can get high again.

Methadone is a manmade, or synthetic, narcotic. Typically, methadone is prescribed to treat opiate addiction, and is administered in the detox process. Unfortunately, though, some people are affected by the illicit use of methadone. For this reason, in 2008, manufacturers of methadone hydrochloride tablets agreed of their own accord to limit the distribution of the medication strictly to detox facilities with authorization for treatment of addiction. Methadone is an opioid, so it has the ability to stop withdrawal symptoms for those affected by addiction.

The average cost for 1 full year of methadone maintenance treatment is approximately $4,700 per patient.

Conversely, some of the cons are as follows:

Persons seeking methadone treatment can continue use of opioids simultaneously.

The Affordable Care Act now requires all insurers to cover addiction treatment.

then take this FACT into consideration
In states with Medicaid coverage for opioid agonist therapy, 45% of individuals enrolled in Medicaid used the opioid agonist therapy. Overall, 7% of all Medicaid enrollees received opioid agonist therapy in states with no methadone coverage, compared to 46.6% of Medicaid enrollees in states that did have Medicaid covering methadone.
http://atforum.com/2016/02/medicaid-coverage-of-methadone-essential-in-treatment-access-for-opioid-use-disorders-study/

so if you want to "draw them in" leave the light on. :cry: just offer free treatment through medicaid, SAPT block grants or other programs we all fund and you will get them lined up at the door.

http://atforum.com/2016/02/medicaid-coverage-of-methadone-essential-in-treatment-access-for-opioid-use-disorders-study/

now it is "opioid-use-disorders"
 

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