2004 Mental Health Plan Year End Report Card

We added revocations of involuntary treatment less restrictive orders as one of the service categories reported on Level 2.3, page 8, under Crisis and Commitment Services. Revocations represent an additional use of inpatient resources that we want to track. Because we have not reported these data previously, 2004 is the baseline year.
We reinstated two outcomes that relate to children who have been incarcerated in the King County juvenile detention facility—youth recidivism and time to first contact when a youth is released (Level 2.6, page 11c, outcomes 9B and 10B). We reported these outcomes in 1998 but lost access to the data until late in 2003. Now that we have access to the data, we will report these outcomes. 2004 is the baseline year.
We eliminated tier 1B as one of the outpatient treatment options. The state Mental Health Division implemented statewide access criteria that exclude persons whose level of functioning is high enough for a 1B benefit. 1B authorizations have been steadily decreasing, however, so the decision did not have a large impact.
We are now reporting in the Executive Summary both the number of persons currently in outpatient services who are non-Medicaid (the old indicator) as well as the number who enter outpatient benefits as non-Medicaid (the new indicator). Both numbers are important for understanding non-Medicaid access. A number of persons enter outpatient services as Medicaid and then convert to non-Medicaid at some point during their benefit. Unlike persons who enter as non-Medicaid and whose non-Medicaid costs are therefore known, the persons who convert to non-Medicaid represent a more hidden non-Medicaid cost that we want to track.
We are also reporting in the Executive Summary a comparison of Medicaid coverage at the start of an outpatient benefit to Medicaid coverage as the last reported benefit. This again gives us information out hidden non-Medicaid costs.
We revised the algorithm for the employment outcome, which included children and older adults, to match the outcome statement, which is restricted to adults. The data for years 2001 to the present have been updated to reflect this change.
Under Level 2.3 Utilization Data, we are reporting the number of persons served in all crisis services. Previously we had been reporting only the number of persons served through crisis next day appointments.

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Updated: June 22, 2005

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