Feds hit on mental health help for kids

Kevin Freking
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Critical mental health services for children are threatened because the federal government misinterprets Medicaid law, one Democrat and one Republican said Tuesday.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said state Medicaid programs were audited on the premise that the federal government is not permitted to fund the medical care of children in mental institutions. As a result, California, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Virginia have been asked to repay more than $10 million, the lawmakers said.

"Because the loss of these funds could threaten the viability of institutions that provide critical mental health services, these audits are a direct threat to the health of needy children," the pair said in a letter to Mark McClellan, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Dan Levinson, the acting inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services.

They contend that nothing in the law prevents the government from paying for care for these children. In fact, they said Congress in 1972 carved out an exemption that allows Medicaid payments for children's "inpatient psychiatric hospital services."

Sen. Collins is chairman of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, and Waxman is the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee.

Mary Kahn, a CMS spokeswoman, said, "We're looking into the situation."