APA Honors Senator for Years of MH Care Advocacy

Advocates for expanded federal support of mental health care have achieved a number of major legislative victories in recent years, which have often come through very small vote margins in Congress. One of the members of Congress who has provided the critical votes to squeeze such major legislation through has been Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), whom APA recently honored.

APA Medical Director James H. Scully Jr., M.D., presented Snowe with the Jacob K. Javits Award at her Capitol Hill office on September 16. The award recognizes a public official who has made a significant contribution to the care of people with mental illness.

“I am deeply honored to receive this award from the American Psychiatric Association, whose leadership and advocacy on behalf of mental illness have improved the lives of millions of Americans nationwide,” said Snowe in a written statement. “As we strive to improve access to quality, affordable health care in our nation, it is incumbent upon Congress to ensure parity when it comes to these services upon which so many rely.”

Snowe's legislative efforts include bucking the majority of her party to provide votes in support of several measures to expand funding for mental health treatment; those measures then passed by narrow margins. Recent examples of these votes include her 2008 support for passage of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (PL 110-275), which included a gradual reduction of Medicare's 50 percent coinsurance charge for outpatient mental health services to the 20 percent charged for other outpatient services. Snowe was among a handful of Republicans voting to break a GOP filibuster against the legislation.

“All patients need leaders like Sen. Snowe,” said immediate past APA President Alan Schatzberg, M.D. “She has recognized that physical and mental health cannot be treated separately and has taken bold steps to ensure they are dealt with in the same way legislatively.”

The APA Council on Advocacy and Government Relations recommends the recipient of the Javits award every two years; that selection must be approved by the Board of Trustees.

Snowe also was one of only two Republicans to support passage this past summer of a six-month, $24 billion extension in federal Medicaid assistance to states (PL 111-226). The Medicaid legislation was strongly supported by APA and other mental health organizations, because without the new federal funds, states were expected to impose massive cuts on their Medicaid programs. Medicaid programs are the largest payers of mental health treatment in the nation, so funding cuts could have had a devastating impact on those who depend on the program for their mental health care.

Snowe “has set a sterling example of how determination and bipartisanship can address some of the nation's biggest problems and improve the quality of life for Mainers,” said Julie Pease, M.D., president of the Maine Association of Psychiatric Physicians.

Snowe noted that the award was especially meaningful to her because its namesake, the late Sen. Jacob Javits (R-N.Y.), serves as a continuing inspiration to her efforts to find bipartisan support for federal commitments to expand funding for and access to health care.

Other recent efforts by Snowe to support treatment for psychiatric illness include her support for a measure (S 3028) by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) that would eliminate the Medicare 190-day lifetime limit for beneficiaries receiving care in a psychiatric hospital. No such lifetime limit exists for other Medicare specialty inpatient hospital services.

In a wide-ranging discussion with Scully after receiving the award, Snowe addressed another issue on which APA has been calling for a policy change: congressional enactment of an overhaul of the Medicare physician payment formula. That formula has led the government to impose a 23 percent pay cut on participating physicians to go into effect in December, following several postponements earlier this year.

Previous recipients of the Javits award include former Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.).