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THE MENTAL HEALTH LEGAL ADVISORS COMMITTEE

MANAGED CARE

Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee (MHLAC) is an agency within the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Its mandate is to provide information to the public on mental health legal matters and to represent low-income persons with or perceived as having mental illness.

Massachusetts has one of the largest mental health carve-out programs in the country and recently expanded the management responsibilities of its single carve-out contractor to include acute care services for uninsured Department of Mental Health clients. MHLAC has monitored the implementation of Medicaid managed care in Massachusetts since its inception in 1992. For more information on these efforts, please click on the following links.

Testimony of Frank Laski on behalf of the MHLAC before the National Council on Disability, November 28, 1998. Executive Director of MHLAC, Frank Laski, provides testimony on the effects of Medicaid Managed Care on mental health services in Massachusetts and presents an overview of the sources of the decline in the quality of care in a managed care controlled mental health system.

Waiting for DMA Reports: In the summer 1998 Advisor, attorney Susan Fendell reports on the status of mandated reports on the performance of the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership, which manages the mental health care for Medicaid recipients and acute care for DMH clients.