Kentucky Officials Consider Budget, Oversight of Children’s Mental Health Program

Continuing to address Kentucky's projected Medicaid budget shortfall, members of the state House and Senate Health and Welfare Committee on Feb. 13 focused on Impact Plus, an optional service for Medicaid-eligible children who have severe mental or emotional disabilities, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. Kentucky's overall Medicaid deficit is projected to reach $60 million in 2001 and $234 million in 2002. Impact Plus, whose budget last year totaled $18 million, will provide day treatment and individual and group therapy to about 4,000 children this year. State officials are looking to save money and provide additional oversight for the program, the Herald-Leader reports. State Medicaid Commissioner Dennis Boyd said, "We are making changes in the way the program is managed and the way needed care is being approved to control costs. We're not cutting services, but we are trying to contain costs at a reasonable level." According to Boyd, the state has enlisted the services of Louisville-based Health Care Review Corp., which will authorize care for program beneficiaries. Previously, regional teams of providers and individuals "close to the child" devised a treatment plan. In addition, the state is "tightening services" by approving care for one to three months, instead of six months as it has in the past. The state also has implemented stricter eligibility, decided not to add new services or medical providers and limited some services. Bart Baldwin, director of the Children's Alliance, a statewide child advocacy organization, believes the changes are "too strict" and will hurt the program. "We're fighting this cause for the children. These changes may help save money in the short term, but after about six months, they'll just see increases in other areas, like hospitalization," Baldwin said (Richardson, Lexington Herald-Leader, 2/13).