Now Available: NABH 2024 Advocacy Priorities!
NABH is pleased to share its
2024 Advocacy Priorities, which we urge you to read and share with your Government Relations teams.
Topping NABH’s priorities this year are parity, workforce, behavioral healthcare information technology, America’s ongoing addiction crisis, and the Institutions for Mental Diseases (IMD) exclusion.
“NABH’s 2024 advocacy priorities reflect the organization’s mission to advance responsive, accountable, and clinically effective prevention, treatment, and care for children, adolescents, adults, and older adults with mental health (MH) and substance use disorders (SUD),” the advocacy priorities document notes. “2024 is a critically important year as the country continues to face intense access challenges for both MH and SUD patients. Demand for our services across all age groups nationwide has never been higher.
NABH Education and Research Foundation to Host Webinar Series on Talent Recruitment
The
NABH Education and Research Foundation will host a two-part webinar series about talent recruitment featuring NABH members and workforce experts in March and April.
Part I –
Talent Recruitment: Exploring Short-Term Solutions – will be held
Tuesday, March 26, 2024 at 2 p.m. ET. Foundation Vice President Jim Shaheen, CEO of New Season/Colonial Management Group, LP, and Foundation Secretary Mary Pawlikowski, president at Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics, will join workforce consultant Beth Kuhn of
Stonegate Strategies for this interactive webinar to help NABH members learn about and share their best, short-term solutions to recruiting talent.
Kuhn has more than 30 years of workforce experience and has served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, including in her roles as commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Workforce Investment and as Vermont’s director of workforce development. She has also served as chief engagement officer at the Kentucky Cabinet of Health and Family Services.
The second webinar in this series will examine longer-term solutions to recruiting talent – such as Registered Apprenticeship Programs, education and certification opportunities, fellowships, and more – on
Thursday, April 18 at 2 p.m. ET.
NABH Board Chair Frank Ghinassi, Ph.D., A.B.P.P. president and CEO, Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care and senior vice president, Behavioral Health and Addictions Service Line, RWJBarnabas Health, will lead the April webinar with Kuhn and workforce consultant
John Pallasch of One Workforce Solutions. Pallasch served previously as the assistant secretary for employment and training at the U.S. Labor Department.
Please join us and click
here to register for Part 1 on March 26 and
here to register for Part 2 on April 18!
Lawmakers Avert Government Shutdown; Healthcare Funding Package Slated for Late March
Federal lawmakers this week averted a partial government shutdown after the Senate on Thursday approved a two-step Continuing Resolution that clears the path for policymakers to conclude appropriations work and prepare for a healthcare funding package scheduled for March 22.
The House and Senate moved quickly to pass a stopgap funding bill ready for President Biden’s signature this weekend, buying more time to finalize half a dozen spending bills that congressional leaders must pass by the new March 8 deadline.
The vote will set up a first tranche of full-year spending bills, which include the Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-VA and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development measures. Enacting these bills would fund those agencies through Sept. 30.
Congress will consider a second batch of bills as they face a new deadline of March 22 to avoid a partial government shutdown. That package includes the Defense, Financial Services, Legislative Branch, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS-Education and State-Foreign Operations measures.
A final deal on the Labor-HHS bill could include a stripped-down healthcare package with a handful of priorities, including a NABH priority: an IMD provision that would make the state plan amendment option permanent. Other healthcare priorities expected in the bill include a partial fix to Medicare physician pay cuts, extended funding for community health centers, and delayed disproportionate share hospital cuts.
Other long-debated health policy measures – including pharmacy benefit manger reforms, site-neutral hospital policies, transparency reforms, and some SUPPORT Act provision reauthorizations – are likely to be set aside until the lame-duck session after November’s elections. MOTAA proponents will likely continue to advocate for including this measure – which NABH will continue to oppose – in a November funding package.
SAMHSA to Host Webinar on Models to Reduce Frequent Service Utilization for Individuals with MH and SUD
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) GAINS Center will host the webinar
Implementing Complex Care Models to Reduce Frequent Service Utilization Among Individuals Experiencing Mental and Substance Use Disorders later this month.
As SAMHSA noted in its announcement, people with complex healthcare needs, including mental and substance use disorders, can sometimes fall through service gaps and cycle among emergency, criminal justice, and hospital systems. Their complex needs require a person-centered approach to care and linkages to support treatment retention and recovery.
Learn more in this webinar on Thursday, March 21 starting at 1:30 p.m. ET. Click
here to register.
Now Open: 2024 NABH Annual Meeting Registration
Registration is now open for the 2024 NABH Annual Meeting,
The Future of Behavioral Healthcare.
Please join us at the Salamander Washington, DC from
May 13-15, 2024 for this year’s Annual Meeting to examine and discuss critical issues that behavioral healthcare providers manage today and will continue to address tomorrow, including access to care, parity, technology, workforce, the political environment, and more.
Click
here to register for the meeting and reserve your hotel room. We look forward to seeing you in Washington!
Join Us for Hill Day 2024!
Please remember to sign up for Hill Day 2024 on
Tuesday, May 14, the second day of this year’s Annual Meeting. Hill Day is an excellent opportunity to meet one-on-one with legislators to discuss the issues that matter most to behavioral healthcare providers.
After you
register for the NABH Annual Meeting, the NABH Congressional Affairs team will match you with legislators who represent you or your facility footprint. Closer to the day of the meeting, we will send you a meeting schedule, materials, and talking points to guide your conversations with Members of Congress and their staff.
Please indicate in your Annual Meeting registration form that you are interested in Hill Day, and be sure to include all the states where your system has a footprint. If you have an existing relationship with a legislator, please let us know!
Reminder: Please Submit Data to NABH’ Denial-of-Care Portal
NABH thanks all members who have submitted data to the association’s
Denial-of-Care Portal. You have provided critical information that expands the portal and helps NABH strengthen its advocacy efforts related to erroneous prior-authorization denials.
With guidance from our members, NABH has improved the portal by adding two elements:
- Time-based data on the number of days between a request for coverage and a plan’s denial, which improves our ability to assess and compare health plan responsiveness.
- The gap between days of provided care versus days of covered care to quantify and compare uncompensated days per health plan.
We strongly encourage all NABH members to submit their denial-of-care data in the portal. If you need help starting, or if you have other questions, please e-mail NABH Associate Manager for Congressional Affairs
Emily Wilkins.
Fact of the Week
In areas with some racial or ethnic diversity, there is a large decline in the geographic availability of buprenorphine prescribers and prescription fills, according to a new study from the University of Pittsburgh. “In areas that are less than 95% white, for example, there’s a 45 to 50% drop (in access),” said Coleman Drake in a
U.S. News and World Report article. Drake is an assistant professor of health policy and management at Pitt Public Health in Pittsburgh and the study’s lead author.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.