Amid Pandemic, A Pharma-Backed Effort to Ease Oversight on Psych Meds

[Judi Lynn]

April 27, 2020

As the California Assembly struggles to begin creating new laws on Monday amid the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic, lawmakers are being urged to select only the most vital-to-the-times bills. To contain infections that have topped 43,000 in the state, there will be masks and gloves, and people seated far from each other in cavernous hearing rooms. Virtual testimony is expected.

Against that backdrop, the Assembly Health Committee is set to hear bill number 3285, which is being pitched as “more crucial than ever.” The legislation aims to scale back oversight on the most powerful and expensive type of psychiatric drugs prescribed to Californians reliant on the state’s Medicaid plan for mental health services.

Democratic state Assembly Member Jacqui Irwin’s bill, sponsored by a special interest group with close ties to the pharmaceutical industry, seeks a change in state law so that quality-of-care and cost reviews of antipsychotic drug prescriptions paid for by Medi-Cal take place annually, instead of every month. The legislation is described as necessary to more quickly deliver antipsychotics – one of several classes of psychotropic drugs – to those suffering from poor access to health care, particularly the homeless.

In an April 17 letter seeking support for AB 3285 to be considered by the Assembly Health Committee, the bill’s sponsor highlights the need for “uninterrupted access to prescribed medication” for those with severe mental illness. The letter calls the issue “more crucial than ever as the state attempts to address homelessness amid the COVID-19 pandemic.” Le Ondra Harvey, executive director of the California Access Coalition, describes the bill as seeking “modest, but very impactful changes to the Medi-Cal system.”

More:
https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/childrens-mental-health/pharma-backed-effort-ease-oversight-mental-health-drugs/42870

[KPN]

1. "Money, it's a hit ...

... don't give me that do-goody-good bullshit
I'm in the high fidelity first class traveling set
and I think I need a Lear jet."

[JustGene]

2. Opioids weren't enough ? n/t