Adjusting to health care reform and alcohol/drug abuse trends

The federal health care reform law presents an opportunity for TAP to expand and improve its services. This comes at a time when alcohol and drug use patterns in the workplace and American society are changing. Most notably, we’re seeing a rise in prescription drug abuse among adults and teens and a clear increase in overall drug and alcohol use among teens.

President Obama has signed two “health care reform” bills into law, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Together these laws require that mental health, alcohol and drug treatment services be provided at parity with medical and surgical services, while increasing the number of people who have access to treatment.

In addition to assisting Teamsters and their family members who are experiencing alcohol, drug, mental health and other personal problems, TAP provides services to Taft-Hartley Trust Funds and to the union locals and employers whose collective bargaining agreements make TAP available to union workers and their covered dependents. Among these services are:

• preferred provider contracts with substance abuse treatment centers,
• substance abuse treatment bill review,
• acting as gatekeeper for substance abuse treatment services,
• coordination of treatment with HMO benefits,
• SAP evaluations for Department of Transportation rule violators
• DOT supervisor training in the workplace,
• General training for supervisors, shop stewards, and
• General training for union officials and business agents.

To assist TAP’s efforts to expand, improve and adapt, Dr. Thomas Brady, MD, MBA, has been hired as a consulting physician. Dr. Brady is a psychiatrist and a nationally-recognized authority on providing quality cost-effective treatment for substance abuse and mental health problems. Beyond being an MD, he is board certified in Addiction Medicine, Psychiatry, Neurology, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

With Dr. Brady on board, TAP is adding medical case review to the services it provides and bolstering its gatekeeping function for substance abuse cases in light of mandated increases in alcohol and drug treatment benefits. He will conduct doctor-to-doctor case reviews and assist TAP counselors with difficult cases where psychiatric, medical and other conditions complicate the rendering of effective treatment while raising costly health insurance issues.

Dr. Brady will join Dr. Tamara Cagney, Ed.D., MFT, RN to form a consulting team for TAP as the program evolves. Dr. Cagney, who has worked with TAP counselors for 10 years, is a renowned authority in the employee assistance field whose expertise brought her to testify in the Exxon Valdez trial.