Senate committee passes mental health drug bill

The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee passed a bill yesterday that would allow KanCare managed care companies to regulate mental health patients' access to anti-psychotic medications. 

Mental health advocates oppose the bill, warning legislators that it would add administrative barriers to a treatment system that is already challenging to navigate, send some high-risk patients into crises, and shift a sizable portion of the system's costs onto hospitals and jails. 

Currently, state law guarantees Medicaid patients' access to whatever behavioral health drugs their physician or psychiatrist sees fit to prescribe. The bill, SB 123, would allow the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to decide how managed care companies would be allowed to regulate patients' access to mental health drugs. 

Bills introduced in the Senate are expected to pass the chamber by Feb. 27, before being referred to the House. 

Read the entire KHI News article.