Contact your Senator and urge him/her to support psychiatric physicians and their patients by passing the Baucus legislation

While it is likely that your Democratic Senators will support the Medicare package introduced by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), we are asking APA members to contact all Senators and urge them to support psychiatric physicians and their patients by passing the Baucus legislation.

In addition to blocking the 10.6% cut in physician payments, Senator Baucus’ legislation would include three of APA’s long-standing top legislative priorities: 1) Elimination of Medicare’s historic discriminatory 50% coinsurance for outpatient mental health services under Medicare Part B; 2) Coverage of benzodiazepines and barbiturates under Medicare Part D; and 
3) Codification of the protection that requires coverage of “all or substantially all” medications in six classes of clinical concern in all Part D plans.

Call for Nominations

University of California San Francisco –  Dr. J. Elliott Royer Award in Psychiatry - Nominations Due July 28, 2008.  See attached flyer for information

San Francisco General Hospital Significant Changes

Letter from Dr. James Dilley, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry; Interim Chief of Psychiatry, SFGH and Executive Director, UCSF AIDS Health Project regarding significant programmatic changes in the San Francisco General Hospital, Department of Psychiatry. These changes are the result of a projected shortfall of $2.4 million for FY ’08-09. In addition to administrative cuts, the major changes at SFGH will be consolidating two inpatient psychiatric units and the closure of the Psychosocial Medicine Clinic.  See attached letter.