Mental Health Benefit Reviews Fuel Protest

Fifteen mentally disabled people demonstrated Wednesday outside the Transamerica Center against a government crackdown on Medicare billing that has curtailed psychological counseling benefits.

“I feel concerned about my benefits,” said Roger Papez, a 44-year-old from Pasadena who described himself as schizophrenic. He toted a sign saying, “Cut Fraud Not Treatment.” A combination of medication and therapy “keeps me stable,” he said. “It keeps me out of the hospital.”

At issue are stringent reviews launched in Southern California 14 months ago by Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly and chronically disabled, after investigators turned up fraudulent claims.

The abuses prompted a Medicare crackdown that has saved the beleaguered system an average of $1 million a month, officials said. Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Co., which processes Medicare claims for this region, began severely limiting traditional “talk” therapy for schizophrenics.