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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Medicaid ADHD Treatment Under Scrutiny

ATLANTA – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, affects one in every seven school-aged children in the U.S., and between 2003 and 2011 the number of children diagnosed with the condition rose by more than 40 percent.

Doctors have considerable leeway in deciding the best course of treatment for a child with the condition, no matter who is paying the bill. But children covered by Medicaid, the joint federal-state health care program for the poor, are at least 50 percent more likely to be diagnosed with the disorder. Georgia alone spends $28 million to $33 million annually on these treatments out of its $2.5 billion Medicaid budget, according to the Barton Child Law and Policy Center here at Emory University.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ever stop to think that ADHD is the new catch-all? Big kickbacks from Drug Companies!

Anonymous said...

Last week there was a report published that 10%, give or take a few, of babies born at PRMC are addicted to drugs. You wonder why so many children are ADHA? Now lets add all of the artificial food we eat and the food dyes that we consume and you wonder what kinds of effects it has on the brain!