Course Description
The purpose of this course is to evaluate state and federal legislation in the area of mental health and substance abuse benefits and to analyze future trends in this type of coverage. Additionally, course participants will review information provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in order to address how professionals and consumers in the medical and mental health fields may be impacted by these mandates and trends. This manual contains several tables that are best viewed by downloading the manual as a pdf file. To do this click the download icon located within the viewer. You will need Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer in order to do this.
Course Objectives
1. Discuss the history of state legislative action on mental illness and substance use disorders coverage, and how history and trends have evolved over the last few decades.
2. Describe state-mandated benefits for mental illness and substance use disorders while differentiating between mandated offering, mandated benefits, and parity.
3. Identify state laws and licensure and/or certification standards that regulate practices of behavioral health care workers.
4. Analyze state-recognized prescriptive authority for psychotropic medication including the regulations and madates that apply to the four professions currently authorized to prescribe drugs for patients with behavioral health problems.
5. Explain the likely impact of increasing costs of health care on mental health and substance use disorders coverage.
