CEO Update 226
Energy & Commerce Committee Schedules Reconciliation Bill Markup for May 7
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has targeted May 7 for a markup of its portion of the Republican reconciliation bill to fund federal operations. Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee, is instructed to find $880 billion in savings from its areas of jurisdiction, which includes Medicaid.
Although Congress is in recess for two weeks, several moderate House Republicans wrote a letter to Guthrie and House GOP leadership this week vowing to oppose steep cuts to Medicaid. Other items under consideration for cuts include spectrum sales, rolling back electric vehicle mandates and pharmacy benefit manager reform.
The GOP leadership has an ambitious timeline for House committees to consider their portions of the reconciliation package. The leadership wants many of the committees involved in the bill to hold markups during the first week after Spring recess.
The GOP leadership is trying to fuel momentum and force the reconciliation bill to the finish line, a strategy that has worked well so far. The vastly different instructions for House and Senate committees in the budget resolution are also a challenge for panels in writing their portions of the bill.
NABH staff members are meeting with Energy & Commerce member offices, sharing concerns about various potential Medicaid cuts including work requirements, provider taxes and state-directed payments, as well as sharing data on how these cuts would affect constituents.
NABH will soon contact our members with a targeted Action Alert to Members of the Energy & Commerce Committee. Please be on the lookout for this and encourage your colleagues to act.
Potential Medicaid cuts and what this means for NABH members will be a priority topic during NABH’s annual Hill Day on Wednesday, May 14.
NABH Joins Modern Medicare Alliance
To push back on Medicaid cuts and educate lawmakers, NABH has joined the Modern Medicaid Alliance (MMA), a “partnership between Americans who value Medicaid and leading advocacy organizations.”
As part of this new effort, NABH recently joined more than 90 health organizations in a letter urging Congress to reject cuts to Medicaid. MMA has also conducted media campaigns and polling to assess voters’ reactions to Medicaid cuts.
Learn more at MMA, where you can also sign up for email alerts, and click here to see state and congressional data that shows Medicaid’s positive effects on American communities.
The NABH Annual Meeting Hotel Reservation Cutoff Date is Approaching!
The Salamander Washington, DC cut-off date to reserve a room for our Annual Meeting is next Friday, April 25!
This year NABH will welcome presenters who will discuss what you need to know about the present telemedicine and telehealth landscape; what’s critical to understand in today’s uncertain regulatory environment; how to better train supervisors at your systems; NABH’s work on apprenticeships to help members with their workforce needs; and more.
So please be sure to reserve your hotel room and register for the meeting if you haven’t yet.
We look forward to seeing you in Washington!
Learn How to Help Your System Attract Skilled Workers & Strengthen Supervisor Competencies!
Please join us for two NABH Annual Meeting sessions this year designed to help your system address its workforce recruitment and retention needs.
On Monday, May 12 at 3:45 p.m., NABH Immediate Past Board Chair Frank A. Ghinassi, Ph.D., A.B.P.P., president and CEO of Rutgers Health University Behavioral Health Care and senior vice president of the Behavioral Health and Addictions Service Line at RWJBarnabas Health, will moderate a panel discussion about NABH’s new project to sponsor a behavioral health technician Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) with the U.S. Labor Department (DOL).
The RAP panel will feature 2025 NABH Board Chair Jim Shaheen, CEO of New Season/Colonial Management Group; John Pallasch, former assistant secretary for employment and training at DOL and founder and CEO of workforce consultancy One Workforce Solutions; and independent consultant Kristen Weeden, who began her career as a child protective case worker. The panelists will explain this new program, how your system will benefit from it, and ways you can help NABH in this process.
Then join us on Tuesday, May 13 at 9 a.m. to learn from Yale Behavioral Health & Yale Program on Supervision COO Scott Migdole, M.S.W., LCSW, who will share Yale’s model for strengthening supervisor competencies and shaping supervision practice in your facilities.
You won’t want to miss these workforce sessions in the Salamander Washington, DC’s Grand Ballroom that the NABH Education and Research Foundation has planned as part of the Foundation’s Mission to identify and develop best practices and improve NABH members’ ability to support the country’s behavioral health needs.
Please remember to register for the Annual Meeting, reserve your hotel room, and view our preliminary program if you haven’t yet.
ICYMI: CMS Proposes 2.4% Hike & Explores Star Ratings, Electronic Patient Assessments in FY 2026 IPF PPS Rule
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recommended a host of payment and quality program changes for fiscal year (FY) 2026 in the proposed inpatient psychiatric facility prospective payment system (IPF PPS) rule the agency released on Friday, April 11.
As NABH reported to members in an April 11 NABH Alert, the proposed rule recommends increasing FY 2026 rates for inpatient psychiatric hospitals and units by 2.4% ($70 million), relative to FY 2025 levels, which accounts for a 3.2% market basket update that would be offset by 0.8 percentage point productivity adjustment.
Please click here to read an in-depth NABH Analysis about the proposed rule’s provisions that NABH sent to members on April 14.
NABH will gather feedback from members before submitting comments, which are due by Tuesday, June 10.
Kaiser Family Foundation to Host Webinar on Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Next Week
The Kaiser Family Foundation will examine Medicaid fraud and abuse in an hourlong webinar that will discuss how state Medicaid programs ensure program integrity and what it takes to address fraud; how substantial is fraud relative to total Medicaid spending; and how fraud and abuse relate to improper payments.
Click here to register for the webinar, which starts at Noon ET on Thursday, April 24.
Fact of the Week
Health Affairs reports on a new dashboard that researchers created to identify and analyze reports of maternal mental health shortfalls. With funding from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Institute of Mental Health, the dashboard focuses on six maternal and two infant outcomes.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.