Annual
Meeting a Success
ACT
employees convened in Wrightsville Beach, NC on March 29, 2003 for
our annual meeting. We
took the opportunity to discuss status of the company, HIPAA
compliance and enjoy special guest speaker Richard Petty, MD during
his upbeat presentation on mental health care for the elderly.
His thorough review of advances in treatment, commonly
overlooked diagnoses and side effects, comprehensive planning and
care by treatment teams and sensitivity to the elderly
population’s needs and feelings was thoroughly appreciated by ACT
staff members.
It
was a true delight to see the entire team together and to share
experiences from the talented providers in the various regions
throughout North Carolina.
Progress in State Reform of the Mental
Health Care System
Area
Programs (AP) throughout the state have made significant advances in
preparing for state reform since ACT’s last contact.
ACT regularly contacts key personnel at all 38 Area Programs
to determine where the AP is in the reform process and what their
community needs may be.
ACT’s
main interests are in community-based psychiatric and psychological
services to adults and the elderly.
Services include therapy, evaluation, consultation and
medication management. ACT is proud to serve as Southeastern Centers Geriatric
Specialty Team for Brunswick, Pender and Onslow counties. ACT’s management team has experience in contracting with
APs for many other services including case management, CAP-MR/DD,
CBS (CBI/HRI), independent living, Thomas S and Willie M.
Though
each AP is at it’s own distinct place in forming contractual
relationships, joining with other APs to form Local Management
Entities and seeking approval of business plans including what/ if
any services they will be able to keep, AP staff are well-informed
and are collaborating with private providers to ensure that the
services needed in their catchment area will be available when APs
are no longer providing direct care.
Area
Programs have a large majority of state funded patients on their
caseload. ACT has been
proactively working with Division of Medical Assistance with
pertinence to updating regulations that currently create barriers to
care by providers other than mental health centers.
Current barriers create a need for private providers to
contract directly with mental health centers and have the mental
health centers bill for their services.
The administrative costs of providing services in this manner
are extremely high and this is also a costly process for Medicaid
due to providers’ ability to collect doctor rates for mid-level
providers. Additionally,
this response is contrary to the purpose of State Reform.
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ACT
Anniversaries!
v Doris
Moore, MBA – 7 years as of June 15
v Barry
Moore, MD - 7
years as of June 15
v Ann
Porter- 4 years as of May 3
v Manijeh
Boustani, PhD- 4 years as of June 4
v Gretchen
Belovicz, PhD- 3 years as of May 1
v Sara
Schneidmiller, PhD- 3 years as of May 1
v Smeeta
Souza-Roy, PsyD- 3 years as of May 1
v Karen
Fulwood, NP- 1 year as of May 2
v Camille
Johnson, NP- 1 year as of May 15
v Shaun
Wright, PA- 1 year as of May 20
Happy
Birthdays!!
v Michael
Streahle, PA on May 11
v Michael
Lefaive, NP on May 18
v Todd
Batcha on May 25
v Manijeh
Boustani, PhD on May 26
v Bryan
Patterson, PhD on June 5
v Sara
Schneidmiller, PhD on June 14
v Jennifer
Benton, NP on June 16
v Cheryl
Reigle on June 22
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