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Janet Firshein or Joe Sutherland at 301/652-1558

FOR RELEASE WITH A.M. PAPERS ON

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2004

NATIONAL REPORT PRAISES NEVADA

FOR EXPANSION OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 30, 2004) – An assessment of health care in the 50 states, released here today, finds that Nevada is a pioneer in the field of mental health care. The report touts Nevada’s expansion of mental health services to better meet the needs of its rapidly growing population. It appears in the February 2004 issue of Governing magazine.

Nevada’s skyrocketing population--the state grew more than 66 percent between 1990 and 2000--coupled with tight mental health budgets had led to difficulty in providing adequate mental health services, particularly in rural areas. The state has just six state hospital beds for every 100,000 residents, significantly below the national average of 33.

But Governing’s report notes that a 31 percent increase this year in the budget of the state’s Department of Mental Health and Developmental Services will go far toward improving mental health services. The new money is bankrolling a new state hospital with 150 additional beds, and mobile mental health teams are being dispatched throughout the state.

“The statistics have painted a grim picture of Nevada’s mental health care in recent years,” says Michele Mariani, co-author of the special issue of Governing. “The new resources are much needed, and the leadership of the Department of Mental Health and Developmental Services is applying them well, in some of the state’s most underserved areas.”

The report also delivered some stinging criticism to the state, however. Despite having among the highest percentages of uninsured children and adults in the country and a relatively meager array of Medicaid benefits, Nevada also has been unusually generous with its doctors. Aware that its physician reimbursement rates had gotten out of line with those in other states, Nevada tried to retrench last year, but wound up knuckling under to pediatric specialists and obstetricians who threatened to boycott the Medicaid program.

Governing’s analysis of state-funded health care is part of the Government Performance Project, a six-year-old effort, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, to evaluate a wide range of state government management and policy functions. This year’s special report focuses on six critical health care problems facing states: long-term care, public health, mental health, prescription drugs, access to care for the uninsured, and care for children.

The Government Performance Project found and documented the inability of the 50 states’ health care system to deliver improvements in medicine fairly and consistently to many of their citizens. Health care in most states is not just inadequate, the study concluded--it’s deteriorating. “After exhaustive analysis and hundreds of interviews,” says Peter Harkness, Governing’s publisher and editor, “it became clear that there is a health care crisis in America. But it is in no way a medical crisis. It is a fiscal crisis.”

Governing is a policy and management magazine aimed at high-level state and local government officials. An online version of this report will be available at http://www.governing.com/gpp/2004/intro.htm as of January 29. Press releases for each of the 50 states can be found at http://www.governing.com/gpp/2004/press.htm.

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