Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | November 22, 2021 | Worcester Business Journal 17 Find business insights and sponsored content articles with relevant and helpful tips and tools for your business. www.wbjournal.com/sponsored/business-insights BIZ MARKETPLACE WBJ WBJ Biz Marketplace is a sponsored content section of wbjournal.com Looks like something's going on over at Altus Dental. Introducing The company with twenty years of experience delivering great dental plans now offers total vision coverage, in partnership with VSP®, a national leader in vision benefits. With Altus Vision, you get: Robust plans including great discounts on designer eyewear, extra glasses and more (even hearing aids!) Easy access to in-network providers, thanks to our partnership with VSP Great rates that work for you and your employees And you thought we only created great dental plans. See for yourself at vision.altusdental.com Altus Vision™ is underwritten by Altus Dental Insurance Company. Claims processing, claims service, and provider network administration for Altus Vision™ are provided under contract by Vision Service Plan Insurance Company ("VSP"). H E A L T H C A R E F O C U S professionals. Among the many proposals in the bill is a series of initiatives specifically targeting the emergency department boarding crisis. ose include creating an online portal to help healthcare providers search for and find open beds, and requiring all emergency departments to have a behavioral health clinician always on-hand to evaluate and stabilize admitted patients who have behavioral health issues. Additionally, the bill would mandate coverage and eliminate prior authorization for mental health acute treatment and stabilization services, effectively reducing the power insurance companies have to control what kind of treatment a patient receives, especially in emergencies. At the same time, it would require insurance companies, including MassHealth, to follow a uniform set of criteria from the American Society of Addiction Medicine for making decisions related to substance use disorder treatments. Although the bill is new, Gov. Charlie Baker expressed support for using the state's legislature to bolster the behavioral healthcare sector, particularly in the face of the pandemic. In general, over the last year, his administration has called for improving access to psychiatric care. "Out of the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is reason for hope, because we are no longer talking about the need for quality mental and behavioral health care in whispers, shamed by stigma," Senate President Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) said in a statement announcing the bill. "As we all face the emotional difficulties and social isolation of the pandemic, people across our commonwealth are talking about their struggles with mental health, and the call for quality mental health care is now a roar." When it comes to the question of whether government intervention can make a difference in this area, the proof is in the work being done in Webster. It was with state financial help that UMass- Harrington built out its expanded adult psychiatric ward, in the first place, using a $1.2-million grant to partially fund the project. "Truthfully, I have to say that I think that the state has been really listening in many ways to a lot of what's going on," Mirhej said. W

• Cover