TMAP is considered a "Best Practice"

Primum non nocere 

Declare the past, diagnose the present, foretell the future; practice these acts. 

As to diseases, make a habit of two things to help, or at least to do no harm. 

A doctor who thinks TMAP is a "Best Practice," isn't much of a doctor...

Jeffrey Thompson, M.D. Medical Director, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, testifying in a HEARING before the SUBCOMMITTEE ON INCOME SECURITY AND FAMILY SUPPORT of the COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 8, 2008 on PRESCRIPTION PSYCHOTROPIC DRUG USE AMONG CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE

A few excerpts:

"We note that the data is presented in a non-judgmental manner. This brings the Committee together, and I might add, the drug companies are actually at the table when we discuss this. What we want to do is stop and take a short, deep breath and review the treatment plans to ensure that there's an integrated plan for the treatment. (emphasis mine)

 
"Recently, our safety standards for stimulants have steered as many as 56 percent of prescriptions for stimulants to lower dose, fewer medications, and sometimes to rethink prescriptions in the very young. Note that 44 percent of prescriptions that are at high dose are in the very young, when our community and us agree that this is actually the appropriate use. (emphasis mine)

"When we look across the country we see antipsychotic use that varies between states--as much as 4% to 13% in the Medicaid populations. Because there is so much variation, the Medicaid medical directors asked NASMD and AHRQ to sponsor an up-to-date pharmacy claims and program bench marking project. We hope this bench marking will highlight "best practices'' like the Texas algorithims..." (emphasis mine) here 

Those Texas algorithms, known as TMAP is a marketing strategy that is used to sell the newest most expensive psychotropic drugs; TMAP was never a "best practice" it was always simply a fraudulent marketing strategy with patently false claims that the  preferred drugs on what Jeffery Thompson called, "the Texas algorithms" were safer and more effective than the older ones; justifying their high cost. TMAP algorithms played a critical role in  the massive amount of Medicaid fraud.  Apparently, here in Washington State it still does.    

I am having difficulty wrapping my mind around the idea that 44% of psychotropic drugs being  prescribed in high doses are being given to the very young here in Washington State. This is, according to Jeffery Thompson's testimony, "the appropriate use" for the drugs. He's obviously working closely with (or is it for?) the drug companies.  So very unethical for Washington's Medicaid Director to have characterized TMAP as a "best practice;" Allen Jones had filed a Federal Whistle-blower Lawsuit in 2004, the State of Texas joined it in 2006. In 2008, when Jeffery Thompson called "the Texas algorithms" a "best practice," it was well known that TMAP was simply an unethical marketing scheme. 

This is the same Director who issued an "emergency warning" for Methadone AFTER 2,173 deaths had become public knowledge.

Washington State hired an architect of the TMAP fraud