Final 2023 IPF-PPS Rule Calls for 2.5% Payment Increase to IPFs in 2023

In a final rule released Thursday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said total estimated payments to inpatient psychiatric facilities (IPFs) are estimated to increase by 2.5%, or $90 million, in fiscal year 2023 relative to IPF payments in 2022. This is larger than the 1.5% payment increase the agency proposed this spring.

For 2023, CMS is updating the IPF prospective payment system (PPS) rates by 3.8%, based on the final IPF market basket update of 4.1% minus a 0.3 percentage point productivity adjustment.

CMS is also updating the outlier threshold so that estimated outlier payments remain at 2% of total payments. The agency estimates this will result in a 1.2% decrease to aggregate payments, due to updating the outlier threshold. CMS noted that due to rounding, the 3.8% increase to payment rates and the 1.2% decrease to outlier payments yield a 2.5% overall increase in IPF payments.

A fact sheet from CMS highlights the final rule’s major provisions, including a permanent 5% cap policy to ease the impact of year-to-year changes in IPF payments related to decreases in the IPF wage index.

Finally, CMS did not make final any changes for the IPF Quality Reporting Program in the 2023 final rule.

Gov. Phil Murphy Announces ‘Strengthening Youth Mental Health Care’ as NGA Chair’s Initiative

Incoming National Governors Association (NGA) Chair Gov. Phil Murphy (D-N.J.) announced “Strengthening Youth Mental Health Care” is his chair’s initiative as he leads the organization from 2022-2023.

“We are all aware of the youth mental health crisis in our country,” Murphy said during the closing session of the NGA’s summer meeting in Portland, Maine. “It is a crisis that the pandemic did not create but exposed more fully,” he added. “It is one that we must tackle together, and tackle now.”

Murphy also acknowledged access-to-care problems and highlighted the four pillars of his chair’s initiative: prevention and resilience building; increasing awareness and reducing stigma; access and affordability of quality treatment and care; and caregiver and educator training and support.

Click here to read more about Murphy’s initiative.

Opioid Response Network & National Association of Counties Offer Guidance on Managing Opioid Litigation Funds   

The Opioid Response Network (ORN) and the National Association of Counties (NACo) have partnered to strengthen the association’s new Opioid Solutions Initiative and resource center, which offers guidance to U.S. counties about how to use funding from litigation between states and opioid manufacturers and distributors.

The support center provides guidance on managing opioid litigation funds, information about effective substance use prevention, treatment and recovery approaches that are approved uses of settlement funds, case studies on evidence-based practices, and  — with help from the ORN — free, on-demand education and training.

Click here to read more about NACo’s Opioid Solutions Center and click here to submit requests for free education and training.

NABH Annual Membership Update: 2022 Membership Directory

NABH is developing its online-only 2022 Membership Directory, an essential member benefit that helps the asssociation in its advocacy efforts.

Earlier this week, NABH sent its system members a separate message that includes a link to the association’s membership-update tool. To help ensure we have the most accurate information on our members, please use the link to our membership-update tool and verify your system’s information.

NABH has added several new categories this year. The answers to these questions will help us provide a more accurate description of our diverse membership to policymakers, regulators, partner organizations, and the media. Please be sure to enter information for all of your system’s facilities so that we have a better picture of our diverse membership.

The deadline to submit your changes to NABH is Friday, Aug. 19, 2022. If you need assistance, please contact Maria Merlie at maria@nabh.org. Thank you!

Enhanced NABH Denial-of-Care Portal is Now Available!

NABH recently made enhancements to its Denial-of-Care Portal that are intended to make the portal easier for members to use.

A year ago, NABH developed the Denial-of-Care Portal to collect specific data on insurers who deny care—often without regard to parity or the effects on patients. Now the association has updated this resource to make it more user-friendly for members and also more aligned with what regulators need to identify parity violations.

The updated portal includes fewer questions, which will require less time for members to complete. In addition, all questions are now optional. NABH hopes this will make it more likely for members to share the data they have. Lastly, NABH has added a checklist of “red flags” that were included in the 2022 MHPAEA Report to Congress from the U.S. Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury Departments in January.

“We know the best way to advocate for parity enforcement with regulators is to provide hard data from our members that show how insurers are not complying with the landmark 2008 parity law,” said NABH President and CEO Shawn Coughlin. “We hope these new changes will make it easier—and faster—for our members to use so that we can gather that critical data.”

Please e-mail Emily Wilkins, NABH’s administrative coordinator, if you have questions about the portal.

Save the Date for the NABH 2023 Annual Meeting!

Please mark your calendars and plan to join us in Washington, DC from June 12-14, 2023 for next year’s NABH Annual Meeting!

Fact of the Week

Calls to the new, national 988 behavioral health crisis hotline increased by 45% during the week after it transitioned to a three-digit number from a longer one.

For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond

ONDCP Director Identifies Gaps and Proposes Better System for Tracking Nonfatal Overdoses

In a recent JAMA commentary, the head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) said the lack of real-time data for both fatal and nonfatal drug overdoses in the United States undermines the ability to respond accountably and restricts the potential to understand the effects of actions and investments.

ONDCP Director Rahul Gupta, M.D., M.B.A., M.P.H., and David Holtgrave, Ph.D., also of ONDCP, argued that it’s essential to build the national data system while taking actions to prevent overdoses and save lives in the near term.

“Once established, this national system should rapidly yield higher-quality, more complete, more timely, and more actionable data to inform increasingly effective policy making to prevent and treat overdose occurrences and build health equity,” the authors wrote. “Doing so will require the partnership of many, but there is not a moment to lose.”

Uniform Law Commission Agrees to Propose a Bill to State Legislatures That to Create More Consistency in Telehealth Laws

Politico reported this week that the influential Uniform Law Commission agreed to propose legislation to state legislatures that would try to create more consistency in telehealth laws and expand access to care across state lines.

The commission nearly unanimously approved the model legislation after two years of deliberations and guidance from the American Medical Association, Federal Trade Commission, state medical boards, and telehealth groups.

“It’s unclear how many states will move to create new laws around telehealth — or use the Uniform Law Commission’s model — but legislatures have embraced past proposals on issues ranging from regulation of organ donation to taxation of people who work in multiple states,” the story noted.

HRSA Payment Program for Rural Health Clinic Buprenorphine-Trained Providers Still Open

The nation’s rural health clinics (RHCs) still have an opportunity to apply for funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) program that pays providers who are waivered to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder.

Launched in 2021, HRSA’s program has about $1.2 million in program funding still available, and RHCs may apply for a $3,000 payment on behalf of each provider who trained to obtain the necessary waiver. HRSA said funds will be paid on a first-come, first-served basis until funds are exhausted.

Please direct any questions to DATA2000WaiverPayments@hrsa.gov. In addition, the American Osteopathic Academy of Addiction Medicine and the Providers Clinical Support System are offering a free online course for waiver-eligibility training. Click here for more information.

Enhanced NABH Denial-of-Care Portal is Now Available!

NABH has made enhancements to its Denial-of-Care Portal that are intended to make the portal easier for members to use.

A year ago, NABH developed the Denial-of-Care Portal to collect specific data on insurers who deny care—often without regard to parity or the effects on patients. Now the association has updated this resource to make it more user-friendly for members and also more aligned with what regulators need to identify parity violations.

The updated portal includes fewer questions, which will require less time for members to complete. In addition, all questions are now optional. NABH hopes this will make it more likely for members to share the data they have. Lastly, NABH has added a checklist of “red flags” that were included in the 2022 MHPAEA Report to Congress from the U.S. Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury Departments in January.

“We know the best way to advocate for parity enforcement with regulators is to provide hard data from our members that show how insurers are not complying with the landmark 2008 parity law,” said NABH President and CEO Shawn Coughlin. “We hope these new changes will make it easier—and faster—for our members to use so that we can gather that critical data.”

Please e-mail Emily Wilkins, NABH’s administrative coordinator, if you have questions about the portal.

Save the Date for the NABH 2023 Annual Meeting!

Please mark your calendars and plan to join us at the Mandarin Oriental Washington, DC from
June 12-14, 2023 for next year’s NABH Annual Meeting!

Fact of the Week

Sixty-four percent of dual-eligible beneficiaries have a mental health diagnosis, according to a recent profile from research firm. ATI Advisory.

For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond

CMS Proposes to Modernize Coverage for Behavioral Health Services in 2023 Physician Fee Schedule Rule

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Thursday proposed new policies to update coverage for behavioral health services in the agency’s physician fee schedule proposed rule for 2023.

In the rule, CMS proposes to address the behavioral healthcare workforce shortage by allowing licensed professional counselors (LPCs), marriage and family therapists (LMFTs), and other types of behavioral health practitioners to provide behavioral health services under general, rather than direct, supervision. CMS also proposes to pay for clinical psychologists and licensed clinical social workers to provide integrated behavioral health services as part of a patient’s primary care team.

In addition, the rule proposes to bundle certain chronic pain management and treatment services into new monthly payments to help improve patient access to team-based, comprehensive, chronic pain treatment. And the agency is proposing to cover opioid treatment and recovery services from mobile units, such as vans, to increase access to services for people who are homeless or live in rural areas.

Meena Seshamani, M.D., Ph.D., director for the Center for Medicare at CMS, and Douglas Jacobs, M.D., M.P.H., chief transformation officer at the Center for Medicare, co-authored a blog post Thursday about the behavioral health changes in the proposed rule.

Federal Health Officials Recommend ‘Preaddiction’ to Treat SUDs

Directors at the National Institutes of Health and the founder of the Treatment Research Institute this week recommended that the DSM-5 diagnostic categories “mild to moderate SUD” be a starting definition for the term preaddiction, a term they said could generate greater attention to the risks associated with early state substance use disorder (SUD) and help direct policies and resources to support preventive and early intervention measures.

Nora Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, George Koob, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol and Abuse and Alcoholism, and Tom McClellan, founder of the Treatment Institute wrote a commentary in JAMA Psychiatry this week that pushed for using the term preaddiction and highlighted lessons learned from Type 2 Diabetes and the role of “prediabetes” in their argument.

As the authors explained, the American Diabetes Association in 2001 suggested the term prediabetes (defined by elevated scores on two laboratory tests: impaired glucose tolerance and impaired fasting glucose) to leverage public motivation to avoid serious diabetes.

“Intervening early is not a new concept, nor is it easy to implement,” the authors wrote. “The diabetes field likely succeeded owing to a broad, well-organized, and sustained strategy applied concurrently at the clinical, public, and policy levels,” they said, adding that if an analogous approach is to be effective in the SUD field, it will require similarly integrated efforts in three areas: measures to define and detect preaddiction; engaging, effective interventions for preaddiction; and public and clinical advocacy.

“The diabetes example illustrates why a similar strategy has not yet happened in the SUD field: poor integration into the rest of mainstream healthcare, lack of a prominent advocacy group demanding clinical and policy changes, and little reimbursement for interventions with less severe SUDs,” the authors noted. “Nonetheless, the diabetes example shows that an early intervention approach can work given a comprehensive, sustained effort. That example also suggests the potential impact from a parallel strategy to reduce addiction problems by more aggressive efforts to identify and reverse preaddiction.”

Volkow discussed the issue further in her blog on July 6.

HUD Announces $365 Million Package to Address Unsheltered Homelessness and Homeless Encampments

The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) recently announced $322 million for permanent housing, supportive services, and other costs, and $43 million to fund about 4,000 new incremental housing choice vouchers.

The Initiative for Unsheltered and Rural Homelessness through HUD promotes partnerships with healthcare organizations, public housing authorities and mainstream housing providers, and people with lived experience and expertise of homelessness.

“President Biden is following through on his promise to unite our country by delivering funding for healthcare and services that support individuals who are unhoused,” Rahul Gupta, M.D., director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in an announcement. “As a physician I have seen firsthand how important it is to address the social and economic conditions of a person’s life in order for them to realize the health and well-being every American deserves.”

Click here to learn more in the full HUD announcement.

SAMHSA Releases Advisory on Peer Supports Services in Crisis Care

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released an advisory that discusses the role of peer support workers and models that are available to help individuals in crisis.

The 17-page resource includes information about the evidence base for peer support services in crisis care, what peer support workers should do, how the recovery process looks different for everyone, and more.

Reminder: National Academies’ Forum on Mental Health and SUD to Host Workshop Next Week

The National Academies’ Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders will host a public workshop that focuses on early intervention for psychosis, current data on the epidemiology and outcomes for people at high risk for psychosis and those who have experienced a first psychosis, and ways to improve care for these patients.

Sessions will provide an overview of the epidemiology for people with psychosis, discuss what services are available and highlight successful models of care, and examine policy solutions and strategies that the most effective for coordinated specialty services.

The workshop will be held on Monday, July 11 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. Click here to register.

Reminder: 2022 Annual Meeting Evaluation

If you attended the 2022 Annual Meeting in Washington, please take a few moments to complete this evaluation via Survey Monkey. Your feedback will help inform our future programs. Thank you.
 
Fact of the Week
Comparing the Public Health Emergency (PHE) period (March 2020 to January 2022) with the pre-PHE period, mental health services for children covered by Medicaid has declined about 23%, according to preliminary data from CMS.

For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond

SAMHSA to Host Webinar on 42 CFR Part 2 Compliance Next Week

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will host a 90-minute webinar for business managers and compliance officers on July 7 to help ensure their organizations comply with SAMHSA’s 42 CFR Part 2 regulations.

The lesson will highlight the latest updates released in January 2018; examine multiple scenarios and frequently asked questions related to SAMHSA’s mental health, substance abuse, and alcohol abuse records; and address proper ways to secure and/or release this information.

SAMHSA urges practice managers, business associates who work with health records, compliance officers, physicians, and other medical professionals to attend the webinar on Thursday, July 7 at 1 p.m. ET.

Click here to register.

White House Maternal Health Blueprint Aims to Increase Access to Behavioral Health Services

In its new White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis, the Biden administration has recommended 50 actions that more than a dozen federal agencies will take to improve maternal care in the United States, including some related to behavioral health.

Released in June, the 68-page blueprint outlines five goals, starting with Goal #1: Increase Access to and Coverage of Comprehensive High-Quality Maternal Health Services, Including Behavioral Health Services.

“We will continue to invest in maternal behavioral health by launching a 24/7 national support hotline for pregnant individuals and new mothers facing mental health challenges and improving provider education,” the blueprint noted in this first goal. “We will also strengthen access to perinatal addiction services by partnering with hospitals and community-based organizations to implement evidence-based practices,” it continued. “Congress must also take critical steps to bolster access to and coverage of maternal health services.”

Other behavioral health-related action items include strengthening supports and access to perinatal addiction services for individuals with substance use disorder by partnering with hospitals and community-based organizations to implement evidence-based interventions, and appointing a dedicated associate administrator for women’s services at SAMHSA to lead its efforts in promoting positive mental health during pregnancy and in the postpartum period.

NABH Responds to AHRQ’s RFI About CAHPS Survey for Inpatient Mental Healthcare Settings

NABH this week responded to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) request for information (RFI) regarding potential Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) for Inpatient Mental Healthcare Settings.

AHRQ’s detailed RFI seeks to identify the highest priority aspects patient experiences to include in measures and surveys, the benefits of collecting information about a patient’s experience from family members and caregivers, the challenges that exist in collecting this information, and much more.

“During inpatient stays, patients are typically experiencing an increase in psychiatric symptomatology, including, but not limited to, hallucinations, paranoia, delusions, emotional lability, and fragmented cognitive processes,” NABH’s letter said in response to a question about the challenges in administering measures and surveys in mental healthcare settings. “Patients may thus be limited in their ability to express thoughts and feelings, to comprehend written material, or sustain their attention to complete a survey,” the letter continued. “For these reasons, we suggest limiting surveys to 20-25 questions, or 8-10.”

Reminder: National Academies’ Forum on Mental Health and SUD to Host Summer Workshop on Early Intervention for Psychosis on July 11

The National Academies’ Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders will host a public workshop that focuses on early intervention for psychosis, current data on the epidemiology and outcomes for people at high risk for psychosis and those who have experienced a first psychosis, and ways to improve care for these patients.

Sessions will provide an overview of the epidemiology for people with psychosis, discuss what services are available and highlight successful models of care, and examine policy solutions and strategies that the most effective for coordinated specialty services.

The workshop will be held on Monday, July 11 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. Click here to register.

Reminder: 2022 Annual Meeting Evaluation

If you attended the 2022 Annual Meeting in Washington, please take a few moments to complete this evaluation via Survey Monkey. Your feedback will help inform our future programs. Thank you.

Fact of the Week

The United States requires about 6,600 new mental health practitioners to meet demand in regions the federal government has identified as health professional shortage areas, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The NABH staff wishes you, your teams, and your families a happy and safe Independence Day weekend!

For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond

Senate Passes Gun-Control Bill with Mental Health Provisions

The Senate on Thursday passed the most significant gun-control legislation since the mid-1990s in a bill that includes about $15 billion in mental health and school security funding. The House is expected to vote today, June 24, on the measure.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act expands the existing Medicaid Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) demonstration program to all states; helps states to implement, enhance, and expand school-based health programs under Medicaid through updated guidance, technical assistance, and state planning grants; requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide guidance to states on how they can increase access to behavioral health services through telehealth under Medicaid and CHIP; appropriates $150 million to help implement the upcoming 988 behavioral health crisis hotline; provides $500 million through the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program to increase the number of qualified mental health service providers that provide school-based mental health services to students in school districts with demonstrated need; and more.

President Biden said he intends to sign the bill into law.

“Last month, President Biden spent hours with the family members whose lives were forever changed by the recent shootings at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas,” said a Statement of Administration Policy from the Office of Management and Budget. “The family members delivered a simple message, which the president then relayed to the American people: do something. Do something to stop the carnage of gun violence that leaves behind grief and trauma in communities, both big and small, across the country.”

The statement added that the bill advances President Biden’s agenda to expand access to mental health services and address the trauma of gun violence affecting so many communities.

Click here to read the legislation.

House Passes Mental Health Bill to Reauthorize Funds for SAMHSA & HRSA

In a 402-20 vote Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 7666, the Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act, which would reauthorize essential Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA) and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) programs to address the nation’s mental health and substance use crises.

The bill would reauthorize and modify several programs, including the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant, the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant, and grants related to suicide prevention and the behavioral health workforce.

In remarks on the House floor, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) applauded the House Energy and Commerce Committee and all House members whose legislation was included in the package.

“I hope this strong vote today will help move these critical policies through the Senate and see them quickly enacted into law,” Hoyer added.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration said it supported the bill in a Statement of Administrative Policy.

World Health Organization Releases First World Mental Health Report Since 2001

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released its largest review of world mental health since it released World Health Report 2001: Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope.

The latest iteration, Transforming Mental Health for All, provides a roadmap for governments, academics, health professionals, and others to support the world in transforming mental health.

“As the world comes to live with, and learn from, the far-reaching effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, we must all reflect on one of its most striking aspects – the huge toll it has taken on people’s mental health,” the nearly 300-page report noted. “Rates of already-common conditions such as depression and anxiety went up by more than 25% in the first year of the pandemic, adding to the nearly one billion people who were already living with a mental disorder,” it continued. “At the same time, we must recognize the frailty of health systems attempting to address the needs of people with newly-presenting as well as pre-existing mental health conditions.”

The report also said that since 2001, countries worldwide have formally adopted international frameworks that guide them to act for mental health. And, it continued, WHO member states have adopted the Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2030, which commits them to meeting 10 global targets for improved mental health.

Categorized in eight sections, the report examines principles and drivers in public mental health, assesses world mental health today, argues for investment in mental health, considers promotion and prevention strategies for change, and explores how to restructure and scale up care.

MACPAC Examines How Medicaid Policy Can Support Adopting Behavioral Health IT

In its June report to Congress, the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) analyzed how Medicaid policy can be used to support adopting health information technology among behavioral healthcare providers.

The report highlighted that Medicaid programs play a critical role in financing behavioral health services and that those programs are focused on ways to provide behavioral health in more integrated settings.

Therefore, the Commission recommended, “…that CMS issue guidance to help states use Medicaid authorities and other federal resources to promote behavioral health IT adoption, and that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration work together to develop voluntary standards that would encourage health IT uptake appropriate for behavioral health.”

See chapter 4 of the report, Encouraging Health Information Technology Adoption in Behavioral Health: Recommendations for Action, to learn more.

CDC Introduces Tool to Check Drinking and Create a Plan to Drink Less

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched an alcohol-screening tool for adults to check their drinking, identify barriers to drinking less frequently, and create a personalized plan to make healthier drinking choices—all anonymously.

The resource is part of the Atlanta-based agency’s new Drink Less, Be Your Best campaign that highlights the harmful effects of alcohol and provides resources to help adults drink less.

CDC noted in its announcement that the tool is not intended for medical diagnosis or treatment.

‘Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness’ Documentary to Air June 27 and 28

Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns presents Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness, a two-part documentary film by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers on Monday and Tuesday, June 27 and 28 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS.

Click here to see a preview of the film, which includes a brief introduction from Burns.

2022 Annual Meeting Presentations Available Online

Please visit our Annual Meeting homepage to view available slide presentations from this year’s Annual Meeting. NABH will post recorded presentations on a later date.
 
And if you attended the 2022 Annual Meeting in Washington, please take a few moments to complete this evaluation via Survey Monkey. Your feedback will help inform our future programs. Thank you.

Reminder: National Academies’ Forum on Mental Health and SUD to Host Summer Workshop on Early Intervention for Psychosis Next Month

The National Academies’ Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders will host a public workshop this summer that focuses on early intervention for psychosis, current data on the epidemiology and outcomes for people at high risk for psychosis and those who have experienced a first psychosis, and ways to improve care for these patients.

Sessions will provide an overview of the epidemiology for people with psychosis, discuss what services are available and highlight successful models of care, and examine policy solutions and strategies that are the most effective for coordinated specialty services.

The workshop will be held on Monday, July 11 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. Click here to register.

Save the Date for the 2023 Annual Meeting!

Please save the date for NABH’s next Annual Meeting: June 12-14, 2023 at the Mandarin Oriental Washington, DC.

Fact of the Week

In 2019, nearly a billion people – including 14% of the world’s adolescents – were living with a mental disorder, the World Health Organization reports.

For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond