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Mental Health Liaison Group Supports Behavioral Health Coverage Transparency Act NABH and more than 40 other organizations that comprise the Mental Health Liaison Group this week sent letters to House and Senate lawmakers that expressed strong support for the Behavioral Health Coverage Transparency Act of 2019. “In unity, we advocated tirelessly for the enactment of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 and recognize that increased transparency and improved accountability of health insurers is essential to fully realizing both the letter and spirit of this landmark law, and its application to the Affordable Care Act,” the letter said. The legislation would require issuers to disclose the analysis they perform in making parity determinations, as well as their denial rates for mental health versus medical/surgical claims and reasons for those denials. In addition, the bill would require federal regulators to conduct a minimum of 12 random audits of health plans per year, and it would create a central online portal for consumers to access publicly available material, such as information about their parity rights and information insurers submit about how they make parity decisions. NABH will keep members apprised of the legislation’s progress. SAMHSA Releases Report on Older Adults Living with Serious Mental Illness The needs and growth of America’s older population with serious mental illness (SMI) exceeds the number of behavioral health providers who are trained in geriatric care, according to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The analysis, Older Adults Living with Serious Mental Illness: The State of the Behavioral Health Workforce, notes that of the 49.2 million adults over the age of 65 years old in the United States, 1.4 to 4.8 percent suffer from SMI. Meanwhile, the U.S. Census Bureau’s National Population Projections show that by 2030, all Baby Boomers— those born between the years 1946-1965—will be older than age 65. At that point, the number of older adults will exceed the number of children. SAMHSA’s report also includes information about workforce barriers, ideas for strengthening the geriatric workforce to address SMI, programs and resources that address the needs of older Americans, and recommendations. Sen. Tina Smith Shares Experience with Depression During Mental Health Month In conjunction with Mental Health Month, Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) shared her personal experience with depression in remarks she gave last week on the U.S. Senate floor. Smith, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labors and Pensions (HELP) Committee, noted that de-stigmatizing and de-mystifying mental illness is just the beginning, and that everyone can help those in need by urging them to take advantage of available resources. “But the 100 of us here in the Senate have a responsibility to make sure those resources are available to everyone,” Smith said. “We can’t afford to leave holes in the net we build to catch people when they fall.” Click here to read Sen. Smith’s remarks as prepared for delivery and to download the video of her remarks. U.S. News Analysis Shows Link Between Racial Bullying and Risky Health Behavior in Kids Students in California’s public high schools who said they had been bullied because of their race, ethnicity, or national origin were twice as likely to have smoked cigarettes, says a new analysis from U.S. News & World Report. Analyzing data from the California Healthy Kids Survey, U.S. News found that alcohol consumption also was higher—40 percent—among students who had suffered bias-related bulling, compared with 29 percent among those who had not, as were reported usage rates for marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, and for prescription opioids, sedatives, and tranquilizers. More than 395,000 students between ninth and 12^th grades took the survey for the 2017-2018 school year, and nearly 53,000 reported they experienced bullying because of their race, ethnicity, or national origin in the last 12 months. Black students were most likely to experience this type of bias-related bullying, according to the analysis, with more than one in five reporting it had happened to them. Meanwhile, nearly 70 percent of those students who said it happened to them said it happened more than once. Neuroscientist Tom Insel to Serve California as Advisor on Mental Health Issues California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) this week named psychiatrist and neuroscientist Tom Insel as a key advisor to help the state develop strategies that address mental health issues. A nationally recognized mental health leader, Insel served as director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the institute within the National Institutes of Health that conducts research on mental health disorders. Insel has also served as a professor of psychiatry at Emory University, where he was the founding director of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience in Atlanta. Dr. Insel has led the Mental Health Team at Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) and most recently served as co-founder and president of Mindstrong Health. Insel served as an Annual Meeting speaker when NABH was known as NAPHS. AATOD 2019 Conference to Highlight Issues and Challenges of Medicated Assisted Treatment This October, the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, Inc. (AATOD) will focus on the issues and challenges of medication assisted treatment (MAT) at its annual conference. AATOD said in a conference announcement that it intends to “educate and promote acceptance and integration of MAT options by patients, families, clinicians, the medical system, judicial systems, government, policymakers, social service administrations, and the general public.” AATOD will host its conference October 19-23 at Disney’s Coronado Spring Resort. Click here for more information, and here to register. Separately, AATOD this week released a 20-page analysis of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s report, Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Save Lives, which was released in March. Help Support Mental Health Month: Promote NABH’s Access to Care Initiative There is one week left of 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! NABH Wants to Hear from Your Organization! NABH is eager to feature our member organizations’ good work and innovative programs to help other NABH members learn about new care and business models and practices. Please share with us a best practice or new program that your organization uses to improve patient care, manage your workforce, streamline costs, or all of the above. We will feature your story—along with a photo or other images you provide—in the Member Profile section of our website. If you have a story to share, please contact Cemal Ozgur at cemal@nabh.org for details. As always, thank you for your good work and commitment to advancing NABH’s mission and vision! For questions or comments about CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.