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NABH Promotes Access to Care Initiative During Mental Health Month
May 1 kicked off Mental Health Month, which the United States has observed throughout May since 1949 to promote awareness about the importance of mental health as a part of overall health.
This year, NABH asks its members to promote this important national observance by supporting the association’s Access to Care initiative. Launched in March, NABH’s Access to Care initiative focuses on two major challenges that too often prevent providers from offering patients a full range of behavioral healthcare services: unjust managed care contracts and countless regulations.
Please visit our Access to Care page, where you can find resources to post and share with your followers, including our Access to Care video (which you can post directly to your organization’s website and share with others), our Access to Care resolution, our regulatory report, The High Cost of Compliance: Assessing the Regulatory Burden on Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities, and social media messages, including a LinkedIn article from NABH President and CEO Mark Covall. Thank you for your help and support!
MACPAC Seeks Public Comment on IMD Additional Info Act
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) is seeking public comment as the commission works on a study about institutions for mental diseases (IMDs) receiving Medicaid under fee for service or managed care.
Last year’s SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act included multiple NABH priorities, among them was a partial repeal of the IMD exclusion for substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. That provision, effective October 2019, permits states to pay for the treatment of Medicaid beneficiaries with a primary SUD diagnosis in IMDs for 30 days in a year.
Included with that IMD reform was a requirement that MACPAC to conduct the study and to seek input from relevant stakeholders, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), state Medicaid officials, state mental health authorities, Medicaid beneficiary advocates, Medicaid managed care organizations, and providers.
Specifically, MACPAC is asking for feedback on state requirements to IMDs seeking Medicaid payment and how states determine if those requirements have been met; quality, facility and clinical standards; descriptions of IMDs receiving Medicaid payment; and descriptions of Medicaid-funding authorities used to pay IMDS and any coverage limitations placed on the scope, duration, or frequency of services provided in an IMD.
MACPAC will discuss a draft of its report at its September 2019 meeting, and the commission’s final report to Congress is due on Jan. 1, 2020.
Providers interested in offering feedback should send written responses to Erin McMullen at erin.mcmullen@macpac.org. Comments are due by 5:30 p.m. ET on Friday, May 31.
SAMHSA Releases Guidance on Inappropriate Use of Antipsychotics
SAMHSA this week released guidance that reviews non-pharmacologic behavioral approaches and strategies to avoid and reduce prescribing of antipsychotics for older adults with dementia and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The guidance is meant primarily for physicians and other prescribers as well as support staff, administrators, and caregivers who work with people with dementia and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in community settings.
“Non-pharmacologic approaches to care should always be attempted first unless clinically contraindicated, including helping individuals maintain a routine schedule, avoiding demanding or challenging tasks, engaging in activities that are important to the person, and focusing on creating a positive environment,” the guidance noted.
NQF Solicits Nominations for Panel on “next-generation” for Quality Measurement Framework
NQF is convening a Technical Expert Panel to address a next-generation-framework for quality measurement. The new framework seeks to strengthen the existing measurement system that may be incomplete and expensive, and based on individual performance measures that may be used in a context for which they were not developed or endorsed. Improvements will support a healthcare industry that is shifting to value-based payment models and public reporting.
The Report called out how a new framework might be applied to the opioid epidemic: “… measure sets for opioids-related care can be developed to incentivize multiple care sites and clinical specialties to focus attention on the epidemic. The development of a measure set in this area can help identify new roles that various portions of the healthcare delivery system can play to impact health system priorities.”
Nominations are being accepted for a Technical Expert Panel through May 20, 2019. An NQF report is expected in Spring 2020.
NIH Study Shows Increase in Suicide Rates Following ’13 Reasons Why’ Release
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) this week announced the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why was associated with a 28.9-percent increase in suicide rates among U.S. youth between the ages of 10-17 in the month (April 2017) after the show’s release.
Researchers from several universities, hospitals, and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) conducted the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The number of deaths by suicide recorded in April 2017 was greater than the number seen in any single month during the five-year period examined by the researchers, the findings showed.
13 Reasons Why is a web-based series that tells the story of a young girl who dies by suicide and leaves behind a series of 13 tapes detailing the reasons why she chose to end her life. The series premiered on March 31, 2017.
“The results of this study should raise awareness that young people are particularly vulnerable to the media,” study author Lisa Horowitz, Ph.D., M.P.H., a clinical scientist in the NIMH Intramural Research Program said in a news release from the NIH. “All disciplines, including the media, need to take good care to be constructive and thoughtful about topics that intersect with public health crises.”
HRSA Accepting Applications for 2019 Graduate Psychology Education and Nurse Corps Programs
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is accepting applications for its Graduate Psychology Education (GPE) program and its Nurse Corps Scholarship Program (NCSP) until May.
HRSA’s GPE program trains doctoral health psychology students, interns, and post-doctoral residents to provide integrated, interdisciplinary, behavioral health and substance use prevention and treatment services in high-need and high-demand areas. The program also supports faculty development of health service psychology. According to HRSA, there is about $18 million in funding for about 40 awards, and it will accept applications through May 7.
The NCSP awards funds to students enrolled in a diploma, associate, baccalaureate, or graduate degree nursing program accept applications for this program if those students commit to serving in high-need, underserved communities. Scholarship support covers tuition, required fees, other reasonable educational costs, and a monthly living stipend. HRSA will accept applications through May 21.
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