Massachusetts Begins Mental Health Screening for Medicaid Kids

Starting Monday, nearly half a million Massachusetts children on Medicaid will receive mental health screening -- in the form of a questionnaire -- when they go for their annual checkups. Read more…

While the article lists some positive benefits, the track record in Pennsylvania should raise alarms. Ten years ago, the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare “sold” confidential Medicare records to a third party, which forwarded this information onto school districts. This third party was paid a commission for every child under Medicare that the school district could claim was “at risk”. Their flyer to school districts boldly proclaimed “In tough times, administrators find ACCESS to new dollars, just ask!"

This led to invasive surveys given to students which violated privacy rights, not to mention that the motivation was financial. As it is always with these types of surveys, the surveys were administered without parental knowledge or consent.