JAN 17, 2013 12:32pm ET

White House Gun Plan Includes Strong Roles for Medical, Mental Health Providers

The Obama Administration’s gun control proposal includes multiple provisions involving health care and mental health providers, as well as schools and health insurers. They include:

* Clarifying that no federal laws including HIPAA prohibit medical and mental health providers from reporting to police direct or credible threats of violence (click here for a clarification letter from HHS/OCR),

* Clarifying that language in the Affordable Care Act does NOT prohibit physicians from asking patients about guns in the house and gun safety,

* Finalizing regulations, expected in February 2013, requiring parity of group health coverage of mental health services,

* Ensuring Medicaid beneficiaries get quality mental health coverage,

* Implementing a new $40 million initiative to train teachers and others who regularly interact with students to recognize the need for mental health treatment and ensure students are referred for such services,

* Implementing a new program to spend $25 million to support individuals age 16 to 25 with mental health or substance abuse issues,

* Implementing another $25 million to establish school-based violence prevention programs that include offering mental health services,

* Providing $30 million to help schools develop and implement emergency management plans, and

* Providing $50 million in stipends and tuition reimbursement to train more than 5,000 mental health professionals to serve students and young adults.

The gun control plan is available here.

Group Practices

Hospitals

Consumer Health

Policy & Regulation

Comments (2)

This is all good, but where's the provision/law to enable the mental healthcare officials and/or courts to enforce/mandate institutionalization of the mentally ill found to be of danger to themselves, their families and to the public - BEFORE they commit an offense?

Posted by Joseph K | Thursday, January 17 2013 at 1:43PM ET

If the government will give us a billable code for this "service", maybe we'll do it. But knowing whether the patient has a gun or not is NOT the responsibility of the health care provider. The government is putting more and more on the physicians while reducing the ability for the physicians to recoup their costs. Just one more straw on the camel's back. Interesting that the government wants us to report gun owners, but prohibits us from turning in drug addicts in the emergency room.

Posted by Jay N | Saturday, January 19 2013 at 10:51AM ET

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