President Biden Sends National Drug Control Policy to Congress
President Biden on Thursday sent his administration’s inaugural
National Drug Control Policy to Congress with the goal of using a whole-of-government approach to combat the nation’s overdose crisis.
The comprehensive strategy focuses on the main drivers of the crisis—untreated addiction and drug trafficking—as it directs federal agencies to take actions that will expand access to evidence-based prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery services, while also reducing the supply of drugs.
The plan comes as the nation continues to produce grim statistics: for the first time in America’s history, the country has passed the milestone of 100,000 deaths resulting from drug overdoses in a 12-month period. Meanwhile, since 1999, drug overdoses have killed approximately 1 million Americans.
A message from President Bident to Congress at the beginning of the strategy explains the Office of National Drug Control Policy led the effort to produce the strategy in close collaboration with the 18 national drug control agencies. In addition, the Biden administration involved more than 2,000 leaders and stakeholders, including Congress, all 50 Governors, and advocates representing public safety, public health, community groups, local governments, and Tribal communities.
An important component of the strategy is its emphasis on harm reduction, an approach that works with people who use drugs to prevent overdose and infectious disease transmission; improve the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of those served; and offer flexible options for accessing substance use disorder treatment and other health care services.
“We are changing how we help people when it comes to drug use, by meeting them where they are with high-impact harm reduction services and removing barriers to effective treatment for addiction,” Rahul Gupta, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., director of National Drug Control Policy, said in the document, “while addressing the underlying factors that lead to substance use disorder head on.”
The Kennedy Forum to Host Parity Webinar on Tuesday, April 26
NABH President and CEO Shawn Coughlin will join HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and other healthcare leaders in a webinar about expanding access to mental health and addiction treatment coverage on Tuesday, April 26.
The webinar will also feature Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, Ph.D., former U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, and American Medical Association President Patrice Harris, M.D.
Click
here to learn more and register for the hourlong webinar, which will start at 2 p.m. ET.
NABH Sends Comments to CMS About Access to Coverage in Medicaid & CHIP
NABH this week responded to a request for information from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding access to coverage for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
In the
letter, NABH emphasized that inadequate access to acute care has led to a strong reliance on hospital emergency rooms to treat people with serious mental illness, even though these settings are not well-suited to address those particular patient needs. NABH also emphasized how the Covid-19 pandemic has heightened the already-increased need for mental health and addiction services.
NABH outlined a series of recommendations, including strengthening network adequacy for the full continuum of mental health and addiction treatment; requiring Medicaid programs and plans to implement parity compliance documentation requirements in Medicaid and CHIP; improving Medicaid reimbursement for mental health and addiction treatment providers; and more.
CMS Opens Federal Independent Dispute Resolution Process for Providers
CMS late last week opened the Federal Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR)
process for healthcare providers, facilities, health plans, and issuers to resolve payment disputes for certain out-of-network charges.
According to CMS, an initiating party will need the following in order to start a dispute: information to identify the qualified IDR items or services; dates and location of items or services; type of items or services such as emergency services and post-stabilization services; codes for corresponding service and place-of-service; attestation that items or services are within the scope of the Federal IDR process; and the initiating party’s preferred certified IDR entity. A list of certified entities is available
here.
After the 30-business-day open negotiation period ends, initiating parties will have four business days to initiate a dispute via the portal.
BJA Accepting Applications for Variety of Behavioral Health-Related Grant Opportunities
The U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is accepting applications for a range of grant programs—eligible to both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations— that seek to improve outcomes for people with mental health and substance use disorders.
BJA’s
Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) for State Prisoners Training and Technical Assistance Program offers funding to provide training and technical assistance (TTA) to grantees and practitioners to improve correctional substance use disorder treatment programming and post-release outcomes for individuals who are incarcerated. Of the four grant opportunities noted in this news item, this grant is the only one for which for-profit organizations other than small businesses are eligible.
The
Connect and Protect: Law Enforcement Behavioral Health Response Program is seeking applications for funding to support law enforcement-behavioral health cross-system collaboration to improve public health and safety responses and outcomes for people with mental health and substance use disorders.
BJA is also accepting applications for its
Improving Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Outcomes for Adults in Reentry for funding to establish, expand, and improve treatment and recovery support services for people with substance use disorders during their incarceration and upon reentry into the community.
And the department is accepting applications for its
Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program to support cross-system collaboration to improve public safety responses and outcomes for individuals with mental health disorders or co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders who come into contact with the justice system.
Please click on the hyperlinks above for more information and grant deadlines.
Political Analyst Amy Walter to Address Attendees at 2022 Annual Meeting Luncheon
NABH is pleased to welcome on-air political analyst Amy Walter as the association’s Annual Meeting Luncheon keynote speaker in Washington on Tuesday, June 14.
For more than 20 years, Amy Walter has built a reputation as an accurate, objective, and insightful political analyst with unparalleled access to campaign insiders and decision-makers. Known as one of the best political journalists covering Washington, she is the publisher and editor-in-chief of the non-partisan
Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, where she provides analysis of the issues, trends, and events that shape the political environment.
As a contributor to the
PBS NewsHour, Ms. Walter provides weekly political analysis for the popular “Politics Monday” segment. She is also a regular Sunday panelist on NBC’s
Meet the Press and CNN’s
Inside Politics and appears frequently on
Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News Channel.
Please plan to join us for this year’s Annual Meeting luncheon. And if you haven’t done so yet, please remember to
register for the meeting and
reserve your hotel room today.
We look forward to seeing you in Washington!
Fact of the Week
People with schizophrenia made up a lower proportion of telehealth encounters relative to in-person visits (1.7% versus 2.7%), while those with anxiety and fear-related disorders accounted for a higher proportion (27.5% versus 25.5%), according to a new
study published in the April edition of
Health Affairs. Researchers concluded the findings highlight the importance of broadening access to services through new modalities without supplanting necessary in-person care for certain groups.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.