Crazy . . .

. . . times.

Per NCDHSS, "We simply don't have enough psychiatrists - especially child psychiatrists - to meet our needs". No duh. Society simply hasn't valued the soul-crushing work that they do . . . and hasn't cared to see them properly reimbursed for years. Meanwhile primary care providers (excuse me, DOCTORS) . . . forced to pump up the volume and crunch numbers to make ends meet . . . simply cannot afford to devote large chunks of unreimbursed time to psychiatric issues. They've got to move on to the next "patient encounter"

In my twelve years out of training, I certainly haven't seen the behavior get better (anybody watch SuperNanny?). The modern-day warped interpretation of "separation of church and state" means that kids can wind up in the principal's office for praying over their meals (or, more likely, before tests:). Discipline is all too often left to a pill, and entertainment to a TV (or worse, the Internet - where children become prey). And teachers joke about needing Ritalin salt-licks in schools.

Then there's the "minor" concern for psychiatrists about being sued if little Johnny takes his Prozac and does something very bad afterwards. According to many lawyers, whatever he does is the prescribing doctor's fault. You see, the "psych" in psychiatrist stands for "psychic".

NCDHHS Secetary Carmen Hooker Odom thinks that the higher Medicaid reimbursements advocated by her "Action Agenda" might entice more psych docs back into the state-supported system. Okay. But Medicaid is a federal program, and it is not a bottomless pit - as our state politicians found out the hard way (and have done nothing but whine about since the well went dry). Don't you just feel those property taxes going up? Where, pray tell, was Ms. Odom (and her boss) when Medicaid was getting ripped off (in a billing scam crafted by her buddies at CMC) to the tune of nearly a billion dollars? Where is she now (not to mention our Attorney General) in terms of doing something about that little bit of fraud and abuse? Making sorry excuses. Decimal points wander. No biggie.

I love this line in the linked article offered by Robin Huffman, executive director of the NC Psychiatric Association - who reports that psychiatrists are (rightfully) skeptical of the plan: "We want to make sure the money goes to making sure patients are being taken care of . . . and it's not going to administration".

That would be a first.