Feds want Medicaid money back

When needing mental health treatment, many of the nation's poor have been turned away at the door. A new move by the federal government may lock them out entirely, at least in Texas.
According to a story in today's Houston Chronicle, the feds have required the state to repay them $1.67 million in Medicaid reimbursements for inpatient psychiatric care. Medicaid does not provide for adults living in psychiatric institutions.
About 200 psychiatrists and institutions in the state received notices from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission in June requesting the return of reimbursements from 2001 to 2007. A few individual practitioners received bills for $40,000 and one medical group was hit with a $130,000 demand, according to the article.
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72-Hour Observations

Weekend Psych News

Texas death row inmate moved to psych facility
If there was any doubt that 25-year-old Andre Thomas has a serious mental disorder, he made his point last month. The death row inmate gouged out his left eye and ate it, resulting in a transfer to a psychiatric facility outside Houston. The case of Mr. Thomas, who had already removed his right eye in 2004, begs the question of how the mentally ill can be sentenced to death. Read more from the Associated Press.

Help for mentally ill in Arizona comes too little, too late
Writer Laurie Roberts posted a damning entry today at the Arizona Republic about the state of mental health care in Arizona. The system has come under fire after a mentally ill man named Joe Gallegos killed two boys with a baseball bat, and presumably had attacked others as well.

More problems at Patton
A patient was found unresponsive at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, CA on Thursday morning in what is now being called a suicide. The patient apparently hung himself. The death, if it is ruled suicide by the coroner, would be the sixth at Patton since 2003. The state hospital is under close scrutiny as part of a deal between state officials and the US Department of Justice to improve care for the residents, including keeping them safe from suicide and assault. Read more at the Los Angeles Times.
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