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New findings about accessibility to anti-psychotic medications have important implications about how we treat people with mental illness.
Researchers from the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics have linked tighter Medicaid policies governing antipsychotic drugs with increased incarceration rates for schizophrenic individuals.
The study comes amid media scrutiny over whether cutbacks in mental health actually save money, when other costs are taken into account.
Some health plans require an extra approval step before tests or treatments can be ordered for patients. This step -- called prior authorization -- is intended to encourage physicians to select cost-effective options by requiring justification for the selection of more expensive options. Likewise, prior authorization policies adopted by state Medicaid programs aim to reduce costs associated with some medications, especially those drugs used to treat schizophrenia. However, an unintended consequence of these policies may be that more mentally-ill patients are being incarcerated, raising questions about the "cost-effectiveness" of these formulary restrictions.
In a study published inΒ The American Journal of Managed Care, researchers found that states requiring prior authorization for atypical antipsychotics had less serious mental illness overall but higher shares of inmates with psychotic symptoms than the national average. The study concluded that prior authorization of atypical antipsychotics was associated with a 22 percent increase in the likelihood of imprisonment, compared with the likelihood in a state without such a requirement.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140722142656.htm
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