President Clinton issued an executive order Friday making it easier for people with psychiatric disabilities to get permanent jobs in the federal government.
The order supersedes a previous rule which made it difficult for agencies to hire people with psychiatric disabilities as permanent employees. Under the old rule, agencies could only hire such employees on a temporary basis only. After the temporary jobs ended, the employees faced having to compete for their jobs through a national job search.
The new rule will afford people with psychiatric problems the same opportunities currently reserved for physically disabled employees. If an employee with psychiatric disabilities performs well on the job, his or her manager can ask the employee to stay on.
The White House also announced it will ask all 225 health care providers in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan to provide the same service and coverage for mental health and substance abuse that they provide for all other health conditions. The Office of Personnel Management expects to have the new mandate fully implemented by 2001.
The mental health, chemical and substance abuse parity is part of a Clinton administration effort to have the federal government "be the model employer for health plans across the nation," said Christopher Jennings, a White House health care policy advisor. Although no official estimates have been released, Jennings said the new coverage would likely cause premiums to go up less than $1.30 per month. "Effective managed care should result in low-cost service," he said.
But Ned Lynch, senior research director at the House Government Reform Civil Service Subcommittee, said the administration may be too optimistic. "It's very difficult to talk about increasing benefits without increasing price," Lynch said.
Although the administration has budgeted a 12 percent increase in premiums for next year, costs often go up that much simply because of increases in the cost of prescription drugs, Lynch said. In addition, health care carriers may refuse to participate or reduce their services in other ways. "I would be very worried about effects on employees of that kind of mandate," he said.
Blue Cross/Blue Shield spokesman Bill Pierce said additional government mandates on health care providers are unnecessary and will only force hikes in premiums. Blue Cross/Blue Shield provides health coverage for 4 million of the 9 million FEHBP beneficiaries, and provides extensive mental health coverage in many of its plans.
It "isn't that we oppose mental health coverage," Pierce said, but, rather that "the more you mandate, the higher the premiums go and the less control we have over the premium costs."