SAMHSA’s Distress Helpline Available for Victims of Hurricane Ida
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Disaster Distress Helpline (DDH) is providing immediate crisis counseling to people who have experienced Hurricane Ida, including survivors, first responders, witnesses, or those who have seen related media reports.
In a statement, Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, Ph.D. urged people to access the helpline, adding that people who have lived through a traumatic event can experience anxiety, worry, or insomnia.
Disaster survivors and responders can call the DDH at 1-800-985-5990 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Click
here for more information.
NABH appreciates and thanks its members who have continued to provide quality behavioral healthcare services in regions of the United States that Hurricane Ida has affected.
MACPAC Publishes Briefs on Healthcare Needs in Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) has released a series of fact sheets on topics related to behavioral healthcare, including two focused on the healthcare needs of adults in the criminal justice system and adolescents in the juvenile healthcare system.
In its brief
Health Care Needs of Adults in the Criminal Justice System, MACPAC reported that, “with few exceptions, Medicaid beneficiaries under community supervision reported higher rates of behavioral health conditions than their privately insured or uninsured peers. They also reported receiving mental health or substance use disorder (SUD) treatment at higher rates. However, Black beneficiaries with behavioral health conditions reported receipt of treatment at lower rates than their white peers.”
Meanwhile, nearly one third (31.0%) of those with mental illness reported that they needed mental health treatment or counseling but did not receive it. These rates did not differ by coverage type. Female beneficiaries with a mental health condition who were under community supervision reported higher rates (41.0%) of unmet need than their male counterparts (21.3%).
In addition, beneficiaries under community supervision with SUD were more likely to engage in treatment compared with those with private insurance, or adults who are uninsured (see Table 9 in the brief). Specifically, they were nearly twice as likely as privately insured or uninsured peers to report receiving such treatment in the past year.
In its brief
Health Care Needs and Use of Services by Adolescents Involved with the Juvenile Justice System, MACPAC concluded the following findings:
- Roughly 21.7% of youth who stayed in jail or juvenile detention reported experiencing a major depressive episode (MDE) at some point in their lifetime, and approximately 16.4% reported experiencing one in the past year.
- Among Medicaid beneficiaries who stayed in jail or juvenile detention, females were nearly three times as likely to experience a MDE in the past year compared with their male peers. They also reported receipt of specialty mental health treatment at higher rates.
- Few Medicaid beneficiaries report receipt of mental health treatment while in jail or juvenile detention.
- Roughly one in five beneficiaries who stayed in jail or juvenile detention had a substance use disorder in the past 12 months. However, only 16.9% received treatment in the past year.
MACPAC also released
Medicaid Coverage of Qualified Residential Treatment Programs for Children in Foster Care, which offered a brief summary of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ September 2019 guidance on the Institutions for Mental Diseases (IMD) exclusion and Qualified Residential Treatment Program (QRTPs), as well as information about how states are implementing changes to the
Family First Prevention Services Act.
CAHPS Program Releases Questions to Ask Patients About Accessing Mental Healthcare Services
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)’s Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS
®) program has released new questions to gather information about patients’ experiences with access to mental healthcare services, including therapy and medication.
An announcement noted that the six questions can be added to either the CAPHS Health Plan Survey or the CAHPS Clinician & Group Survey.
Click
here to review the mental healthcare questions for the Health Plan Survey 5.0 and 5.1, and
here to review the mental healthcare questions for the Clinician & Group Survey 3.0 and 3.1.
The agency noted that the new questions complement the CAHPS research team’s ongoing work to develop and test a standalone survey designed to assess patient experience with care for mental or behavioral health issues. Click
here to learn more about CAHPS mental health surveys.
HRSA Reorganizes to Meet Priorities in Changing Healthcare Landscape
After a decade of growth, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced it has reorganized the agency to better meet its priorities.
As part of that restructuring, HRSA has established a Provider Relief Bureau (PRB) to manage and distribute financial support for the nation’s healthcare providers as they continue to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. HRSA also created an Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) within the Office of the Administrator to serve as HHS’ focal point for fostering telehealth use more broadly, and an Office of Special Health Initiatives (OSHI) to oversee the 340B Drug Pricing Program.
Click
here to see HRSA’s new organization chart and
here for more details in the
Federal Register.
U.S. Researchers Find Increased Likelihood of Arrhythmia Hospitalization in Youth With CUD
A new
study from the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry shows Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD) was associated with a 47% to 52% increased likelihood of arrhythmia hospitalizations in the younger population.
The large, national study compared 570,000 patients between the ages of 15 and 54 who were admitted to the hospital between 2010-2014 for a primary diagnosis of arrhythmia, or an irregular heart rate, with 67,662,082 non-arrhythmia inpatients. According to the findings, atrial fibrillation was the most prevalent arrhythmia raising concerns for stroke and other embolic events.
“The fact that atrial fibrillation is the most prevalent arrhythmia is of special concern since it can result in stroke and other embolic events,” researchers noted in the study. “Physicians need to familiarize themselves with cannabis abuse or dependence as a risk factor for arrhythmia.”
Reminder: NABH Denial-of-Care Portal is Open to Members
NABH’s Denial-of-Care Portal is a new resource for members to provide information about their experiences with managed care organizations that impose barriers to care through insurance-claim denials.
NABH’s Managed Care Committee worked for more than a year to develop the Denial-of-Care Portal as a way to collect specific data on insurers who deny care—often without regard for parity or the effects on patients.
This NABH member-only, survey-like tool allows users to add the name of a managed care organization, type of plan, level of care, type of care (mental health or substance use disorder), duration of approved treatment, duration of unapproved treatment, criteria used to deny a claim, and more.
The portal allows members to submit individual examples of claim denials or upload multiple entries via Excel. It also includes sections on appeals and physician participation. In time, the tool could be a valuable resource for the NABH team’s advocacy efforts.
Please e-mail
Emily Wilkins, NABH’s administrative coordinator, if you have questions about the portal.
2021 NABH Annual Meeting Hotel Cut-Off Date is Now Sept. 17!
Please be sure to
reserve your hotel room today at the Mandarin Oriental Washington, DC for the 2021 NABH Annual Meeting! The hotel’s cut-off date is now
Friday, Sept. 17, 2021.
And please visit our Annual Meeting
webpage to register for the meeting, if you have not done so yet. We look forward to seeing you in Washington!
Fact of the Week
Denver, Salt Lake City, and Minneapolis are reported to be the three best U.S. cities for mental health, while Dallas, Houston, and Jacksonville are the three worst, according to a new
survey from telehealth company CertaPet. Researchers examined the following seven factors to determine the rankings: therapy session rate by state, total prescription charges by state, mandatory treatment laws grade by state, criminalization of mental illness by state, number of residents per one mental health provider by county, poor mental health days by county, and overall community wellbeing.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.