Practice Management Insight

October 2013

A report on events affecting Oklahoma providers

Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk

Alzheimer’s Association

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

National Resource Center for Domestic Violence

National Depression and Mental Health Screening Month

Screening for Mental Health, Inc.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month

U.S. Dept. of Labor

National Family Sexuality Education Month

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

October 1

International Day of Older Persons

October 6 – 12

National Mental Illness Awareness Week

American Psychiatric Association

RSS Training - OKC- Registration Required

October 7 - October 18

Safety Training for Home-Based Professionals

October 7

Wraparound 101

October 7 - October 8

Case Mgmt Training-TULSA-Reg Deadline 09-24-2013

October 8 - October 11

Community Level Instrument (CLI) Training for SPFS

October 8

October 10

World Mental Health Day

World Federation for Mental Health

Family Support Provider (FSP) Training

October 11

Addiction Severity Index (ASI) Up-Date Training

October 14

NEO and TherOps

October 15 - October 18

FSP/CC Conference-FSP Only Registration

October 16 - October 17

FSP/CC Conference-CC Only Registration

October 17 - October 18

Case Mgmt Training-OKC-Reg Deadline 10-08-2013

October 22 - October 25

Nicotine Dependence Treatment Symposium

October 23

October 24

Take Back Your Time Day

The Simplicity Forum

Addiction Severity Index (ASI)

October 24 - October 25

Continuing the Motivational Interviewing Journey

October 24 - October 25

ASAM

October 28

October 30

Lung Health Day

American Association for Respiratory Care

SOAR Training -Oklahoma City

October 31 - November 1

October 31

Halloween

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New Updates for October

BH Fraud Update:

Four Michigan mental health providers

face felony Medicaid fraud charges

Personnel allegedly falsified additions to encounter records, hoping to avoid Medicaid repayments for incomplete documentation

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette recently announced felony charges against four licensed Southeast Michigan mental healthcare providers for alleged Medicaid fraud.

Schuette filed criminal charges against Dr. Sandra M. Schiff, PhD, 66, of West Bloomfield; William G. Vallier, 65, of Clawson; Marceia K. Lugo, 39, of Sterling Heights; and Laura Leca, 27, of Westland. All four defendants were employed in 2012 by Adult Well-Being Services (AWBS).

More Information

Spurned by Ohio lawmakers, Kasich set to deliver on Medicaid expansion

Medicaid expansion: 25 states in,

six others getting closer

Governor's surprise expansion request to Ohio Controlling Board likely to win, say critics

On October 9, at about the same time that Ohio’s Medicaid program received CMS approval on state plan amendments that would simplify its complex eligibility rules, the administration of Ohio's Republican Governor, John Kasich, leaked word that the Governor, who was denied the support of Ohio's Republican-dominated General Assembly for the Medicaid expansion earlier this year, plans to enact it anyway.

More Information

As Medicaid expansion begins, 25 states (plus D.C.) are in, six are on the fence, and 19 are out, at least for now

State-by-state update: Medicaid Expansion and Insurance Exchanges

Medicaid expansion is now taking place in 26 states, plus the District of Columbia, while six more states are hashing out the details of compromise expansion plans or awaiting approval of their plans from the federal Centers for Medicare or Medicaid Services.

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Outcomes measurement essential for post-reform healthcare success

It’s time for our field to measure the value of our work. If we don’t, others will do it for us.

For most behavioral health professionals, our first encounter with the notion of measuring outcomes occurs during graduate school in the context of research on psychotherapy effectiveness. Findings on this topic are typically based upon use of a myriad of self-report, therapist-report, psychometric and survey methods not intended for routine clinical use and apt to yield results not directly comparable to those of other studies.  After slogging through a morass of confusing conclusions, the take-away message for many of us is that measurement is practically impossible, due to the complexity of the psychotherapeutic change process and the confounds created by endless combinations of patient, therapist and a host of other variables. On that note, many of us headed off to applied behavioral care careers, leaving the idea of measuring treatment outcomes behind.

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Report documents considerable state activity on marijuana legalization

DBT offers a balanced approach for addressing borderline personality

Adoption of marijuana legalization measures in Colorado and Washington clearly is having spillover effects elsewhere in the country, according to an analysis by an online legal research service.

WestlawNext reported this week that 13 states, including Colorado and Washington, have either proposed or enacted laws allowing for some recreational use of marijuana and regulation of the drug in a fashion similar to alcohol regulation. Only 10 states have not addressed any legislation involving either recreational or medical use of marijuana, according to the analysis.

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“Anxious,” “exhausted,” “feeling ineffective.” These are words many therapists apply to the experience of serving a client who has borderline personality disorder (BPD). Marsha Linehan, the founder of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), contends that this is a typical and unfortunate result of attempting to manage a BPD client using traditional methods.

Interestingly, according to Linehan, traditional therapies (especially cognitive-behavioral therapies) may actually exacerbate the BPD client’s issues because the client experiences the techniques as invalidating.

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Give yourself a do-over professionally

If my life as an addiction professional were a do-over, there are many things I’d do differently, especially in the area of self-care. We speak about self-care a lot, but frankly, we don’t even know how to spell the word.

Teachers tell us to “use our vacation time,” “take time off when we’re overwhelmed,” “get a life,” “go for walks in the woods,” “nurture our spiritual life.” All of these are wise recommendations and valid forms of self-care. But some of my do-overs would be more basic.

Life is not like a song that you learn and then get to sing over again. Just about when you’ve learned the tune of life, it’s over. But there are some do-overs, especially for people in recovery. So if you are just learning the tune of life, if you are new to the field of counseling, here are some pearls of wisdom I’ve learned over my nearly 50 years in the addictions field.

Care of the body equals care of the soul.

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Oklahoma Health Care Authority/

HP Training over

Claim Form 1500, ICD-10,

and the new upcoming

changes for January 2014