President Biden’s FY 2024 Budget Proposal Includes Strong Focus on Behavioral Healthcare Needs

Yesterday, President Biden issued his Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposal, which now goes to Congress for consideration. Key provisions include:
 
Elimination of the 190-day Lifetime Limit on Psychiatric Hospital Services. The proposed budget would rescind the current law limiting Medicare enrollees to a lifetime limit of 190-days inpatient psychiatric care. The purpose of this provision is to increase access to hospital-level care and advance parity between mental health and physical health coverage for patients with serious mental illness. The budget estimates that this item would generate a $2.4 billion cost to Medicare over 10 years.

Greater Psychiatric Hospital Flexibility when Restoring Compliance with Conditions of Participation. In cases where a psychiatric hospital is non-compliant with the Medicare conditions of participation for a deficiency that does not jeopardize patient health and well-being, the proposed budget would give CMS flexibility to continue issuing Medicare payments if the facility is actively working to correct the deficiency, rather than terminate Medicare participation.

Workforce. The proposed budget also includes a $2 billion mandatory Mental Health System Transformation Fund for workforce development and service expansion. In part, this workforce development effort would augment FY 2023 funding already enacted in law to train about 18,000 behavioral health providers— including clinicians, peer support specialists, and others—and increase the number of providers practicing in areas of high demand throughout the country.

Parity. The proposed budget would apply to Medicare Advantage the 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, requiring health plans to offer mental health and substance use disorder benefits that are no more restrictive than the medical and surgical benefits they offer. It also requires health plans to use medical necessity criteria for behavioral health developed by nonprofit medical specialty associations, as well as regulation of behavioral health network adequacy, and the creation of a standard for parity in reimbursement. The budget estimates a $760 million cost over 10 years for these parity items.

Learn more about the Biden administration’s FY 2024 budget proposal here.

Study Shows Opioids Cause Half of All Poisonings in U.S. Kids Aged 5 and Under

About 52% of poisoning deaths of U.S. children aged 5 and under in 2018 involved the ingestion of an opioid, according to a study published online this week in the journal Pediatrics.

Researchers also found that opioids accounted for a progressively greater proportion of the substances contributing to poisoning-related deaths during the study period, from 24% in 2005 to 52% in 2018.
 
“As the types of opioids circulating during the current epidemic continue to evolve, policy and programmatic initiatives should focus on children in addition to adults,” the study’s authors wrote.  “Regulatory changes have improved the safety of OTC medications, but a substantial proportion of pediatric fatalities are still associated with this medication class.”

Thank You to Members Who Submitted Comments on Workforce Challenges & Solutions

NABH thanks all members who responded to our request for feedback about their system’s most critical workforce challenges and potential solutions.

The NABH Research and Education Foundation is seeking comments in these two areas to help NABH respond to a request for information (RFI) that the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee announced last week. The RFI follows a Feb. 16 hearing the Senate HELP Committee held to examine the root causes of America’s current healthcare workforce shortages and explore potential solutions.
 
If you haven’t sent comments and would like to contribute, please send your feedback as an attachment to foundation@nabh.org by the close of business on Monday, March 13.

Registration is Open for the 2023 NABH Annual Meeting: Securing the Promise of Parity!

Please join us in Washington, DC from June 12-14, 2023 for this year’s NABH Annual Meeting at the Salamander Washington, DC (formerly the Mandarin Oriental hotel).

NABH’s theme this year is Securing the Promise of Parity, which recognizes the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act’s (MPAEA) 15^th anniversary and that we have more work to do to ensure the landmark law is implemented fully.

Please visit our Annual Meeting homepage to register, reserve your hotel room, and view our Annual Meeting At-a-Glance.

We look forward to seeing you in Washington!

Manatt Telehealth Webinar Recording Now Available

NABH thanks its members who helped the NABH Education and Research Foundation and Manatt produce a joint issue brief, Telehealth is Effectively Augmenting Traditional Partial Hospitalization and Intensive Outpatient Programs last month.

In case you missed it, Manatt led a webinar on March 1 that highlighted the telehealth issue brief’s findings. Click here to submit a brief form to watch the recorded webinar.

NABH is grateful to Abhi Pardeshi from UHS, Dylan Ross from Rogers Behavioral Health, and T.J. Vlavianos from Northwell Health’s Zucker Hillside Hospital for joining NABH President and CEO Shawn Coughlin as the webinar’s panelists.

Reminder: Please Submit Data to Enhance NABH’s Managed-Care Advocacy Efforts

Thank you to all members who have submitted data to NABH’s denial-of-care portal. Your data will help NABH highlight problems in the field related to health plan denials and timeliness.

Several policymaking entities are interested in these data, which could support advocacy for expanded access to care. For new participants, please e-mail Emily Wilkins, NABH’s administrative coordinator, for support.

Fact of the Week

Males make up 25% of people with anorexia. Because they are often diagnosed later than females, they are at higher risk of dying, according to the Center for Discovery.

For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.

Registration is Open for the 2023 NABH Annual Meeting: Securing the Promise of Parity!

Please join us in Washington, DC from June 12-14, 2023 for this year’s NABH Annual Meeting at the Salamander Washington, DC (formerly the Mandarin Oriental hotel).

NABH’s theme this year is Securing the Promise of Parity, which recognizes the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act’s (MPAEA) 15^th anniversary and that we have more work to do to ensure the landmark law is implemented fully.

Please visit our Annual Meeting homepage to register, reserve your hotel room, and view our Annual Meeting At-a-Glance.

We look forward to seeing you in Washington!

Please Send Us Your Feedback on Workforce Challenges & Solutions

The NABH Research and Education Foundation is seeking comments from NABH members on 1) the main drivers of your system’s workforce shortages, and 2) your ideas for solutions.

NABH will gather this collective feedback and respond to the request for information (RFI) that the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee announced thursday.

The RFI follows a Feb. 16 hearing the Senate HELP Committee held to examine the root causes of America’s current healthcare workforce shortages and explore potential solutions.

Please send your comments as an attachment to foundation@nabh.org by the close of business on Monday, March 13.

Thank you for your help with this critical issue!

DEA Proposes Two Telemedicine Regulations

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently published two telemedicine rules that, taken together, largely revert to pre-COVID requirements for an in-person medical evaluation prior to prescribing controlled substances.

DEA’s Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for buprenorphine and telemedicine without an in-person medical evaluation propose permitting the following two scenarios under which a telemedicine prescription can take place:

Scenario A: Permitting a virtual first prescription by the prescribing practitioner without an in-person medical evaluation for an initial 30-days of non-narcotic Schedule III-V or buprenorphine-controlled substances. The NPRM proposes specific processes and documentation requirements for this scenario, such as checking the PDMP and noting ‘telemedicine’ on the face of the prescription.

Scenario B: Permitting a qualified telemedicine referral in which a second DEA-registered practitioner performs an in-person exam and makes a referral to the prescribing practitioner. Under this scenario, Schedule II-V and narcotic substances can be prescribed. The NPRM proposes processes and documentation for these referrals, such as a written referral and transfer of medical records prior to prescribing.

To continue prescribing after 30-days under Scenario A, a one-time in-person medical evaluation is required. The in-person evaluation requirement can be satisfied in three ways:

• Through an evaluation by the telemedicine prescribing practitioner;

• Through an evaluation conducted as a three-way audio-visual exam in which the prescribing practitioner, another DEA-registered referring provider, and the patient participate;

• Through a ‘qualified telemedicine referral’ by another DEA-registered practitioner who has seen the patient in-person and who adheres to specific procedures and documentation for the referral.

Meanwhile, if a telemedicine prescription for a controlled substance was initiated during the public health emergency (PHE), the NPRM proposes a 180-day transition period during which time an in-person medical evaluation must take place. If the NPRM is finalized by May 11, 2023 (the designated end of the PHE), an individual inducted during the PHE would have to have an in-person medical evaluation by November 2023. This extends to all prescriptions for controlled substances II-V initiated during the PHE.

The NPRM do not include the long-awaited special registration rule, which would have allowed certain clinicians to prescribe controlled substances via telemedicine without an in-person evaluation. Moreover, DEA said this NPRM satisfies its obligation to propose rules for a special registration.

In addition, the revisions align with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ updated definition of telehealth to include audio-only telemedicine of controlled substances for mental health where states permit it. These instances are both limited and situational.

NABH will provide comments to DEA by the agency’s March 31 deadline. Please send any comments to Sarah Wattenberg at sarah@nabh.org by Friday, March 17.

SAMHSA Releases Report on Long COVID’s Effects on Behavioral Health

A meta-analysis of studies around the world showed that the overall prevalence of depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances among COVID-19 survivors was 45%, 47%, and 34%, respectively, according to a report released this week from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines Long COVID as “new, returning, or ongoing symptoms that last four or more weeks following acute COVID-19 diagnosis.”

SAMHSA’s report, Overview of the Impacts of Long COVID on Behavioral Health, examines the effects of the deadly virus in a variety of areas, including cognitive and psychiatric symptoms associated with Long COVID, a widening of health disparity gaps, potential long-term implications, and future directions for Long COVID recovery.

“Among the most common symptoms of Long COVID is a gradient of cognitive and psychiatric sequelae (e.g., depression, anxiety, PTSD), which may portend significant consequences for patient functioning and quality of life,” the report noted.

The study also said that in comparison with those not affected, COVID-19 survivors show increased rates of mental health and cognitive problems.

Reminder: Please Submit Data to Enhance NABH’s Managed-Care Advocacy Efforts

Thank you to all members who have submitted data to NABH’s denial-of-care portal. Your data will help NABH highlight problems in the field related to health plan denials and timeliness.

Several policymaking entities are interested in these data, which could support advocacy for expanded access to care. For new participants, please e-mail Emily Wilkins, NABH’s administrative coordinator, for support.

Fact of the Week

Research has shown that, regardless of COVID-19 status, 53% of healthcare workers reported symptoms of at least one mental health condition, including depression (32%), anxiety (30%), PTSD (37%), and suicidal ideation (8%), according to SAMHSA’s Overview of the Impacts of Long COVID on Behavioral Health.

For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.

Registration is Open for the 2023 NABH Annual Meeting: Securing the Promise of Parity!

Please plan to join us in Washington, DC from June 12-14, 2023 for this year’s NABH Annual Meeting at the Salamander Washington, DC (formerly the Mandarin Oriental hotel).

NABH’s theme this year is Securing the Promise of Parity, which recognizes the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act’s (MPAEA) 15^th anniversary and that we have more work to do to ensure the landmark law is implemented fully.

Please visit our Annual Meeting homepage to register, reserve your hotel room, and view our Annual Meeting At-a-Glance.

We look forward to seeing you in Washington!

Reminder: NABH-Manatt Telehealth Issue Brief Webinar on Wednesday, March 1

Manatt will host a webinar featuring NABH President and CEO Shawn Coughlin and NABH members as panelists on Wednesday, March 1 at noon ET to highlight findings from the telehealth issue brief that the NABH Education and Research Foundation and Manatt released this month.

The telehealth issue brief is the first resource from the NABH Education and Research Foundation, which worked with NABH members and Manatt to compile and evaluate data to measure the impact that telehealth services have had on access and outcomes. The study showed how telehealth services effectively augment traditional partial hospitalization programs (PHP) and intensive outpatient programs (IOP).

NABH urges its members to read the issue brief and share it with others. The association has also created a social media toolkit with shareable graphics that highlight key research from the study. Members can access the issue brief and social media toolkit on the NABH Education and Research Foundation’s Resources page.

Click here to register for next week’s free webinar.

Biden Administration Will Allow States to Use Medicaid to Cover SUD for Incarcerated Persons

The Biden administration will allow states to use Medicaid funding to cover substance use disorder (SUD) treatment for incarcerated persons at state jails and prisons, news outlets reported this week.

According to Politico, Rahul Gupta, M.D., director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Tuesday that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to release guidance this spring that outlines how states could use the program and federal dollars to pay for treatments before people are released.

The story also quoted Gupta as saying the guidance is a “smart move” and that all 112 of the nation’s federal prisons will offer medication-assisted treatment for SUD by this summer.

NIH Trial to Compare Effects of Prescribed Buprenorphine or Methadone in Office Settings

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will conduct a hybrid effectiveness/implementation trial to compare patients’ ability to remain in treatment when they’re prescribed buprenorphine or methadone in an office-based setting, STAT News reported today.

According to the story, the clinical trial, scheduled for this year, is the first of its kind in the “fentanyl era.”

“While we do have hints from the scientific literature that methadone has better outcomes with respect to retention in treatment and decreases in illicit drug use, we actually don’t have that literature in patients who are primarily using fentanyl,” David Fiellin, M.D., director of Yale Medical School’s Program in Addiction Medicine and the researcher overseeing the trial, said in the story.

Click here for details about the NIH study.

CMS Releases Preliminary Medicaid and CHIP Data Snapshot

CMS this week released Medicaid and CHIP and the Covid-19 Public Health Emergency, a data snapshot that compares healthcare service utilization patterns, including behavioral healthcare services, in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) during the Covid-19 pandemic from March 2020 through July 2022.

Section five of the report presents the behavioral healthcare content, including services delivered via telehealth and a breakdown of services for adults and children enrolled in these programs.

More than 137 million Americans—including children, pregnant women, parents, seniors, and individuals with disabilities—were enrolled across each state’s Medicaid or CHIP for at least one day during the public health emergency.

Reminder: Please Submit Data to Enhance NABH’s Managed-Care Advocacy Efforts

Thank you to all members who have submitted data to NABH’s denial-of-care portal. Your data will help NABH highlight problems in the field related to health plan denials and timeliness.

Several policymaking entities are interested in these data, which could support advocacy for expanded access to care. For new participants, please e-mail Emily Wilkins, NABH’s administrative coordinator, for support.

Fact of the Week

Black patients are 1.6 times more likely to experience an involuntary psychiatric hospital admission than non-Black patients, according to a study about racial and ethnic inequities published in Psychiatric Services.
 
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.

FDA Advisors Recommend Over-the-Counter Use of Narcan

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel this week voted 19-0 to recommend the agency approve the anti-opioid overdose drug Narcan be made available as an over-the-counter drug.

Narcan is currently available by prescription only, and the change would make it the first opioid overdose reversal drug to be made available over the counter. News reports noted the FDA advisors also asked that the manufacturer make it more clear to users how to administer the product.

The FDA is expected to make a final decision by March 29.

CDC Releases Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report: 2011-2021

Female students were nearly twice as likely to attempt suicide during the past year compared with their male peers, with nearly six in 10 feeling persistently sad or hopeless and more than one in 10 attempting suicide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in its Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report: 2011-2021 this week.

The data provide a critical view of U.S. adolescent health and well-being related to sexual behavior, substance use, experiences of violence, mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This year’s report also includes data on students’ experiences of unstable housing, school connectedness, and parental monitoring to expand understanding of young people’s environments and opportunities to improve them.

In the CDC’s words, the findings “tell a distressing story” about the health and well-being of our country’s young people. According to the report, female students experienced more violence, mental health challenges, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and substance use than their male peers. For instance, the percentage of female students who had ever experienced forced sex increased for the first time in 10 years, with 14% of female students having this experience.

Meanwhile, attempted suicide was higher among Black students than students from other groups and increased among Black and White students from 2011 to 2021. And LGBQ+ students were nearly four times as likely as their heterosexual peers to attempt suicide during the past year, with more than two in 10 reporting this experience.

CDC Provisional Data Show U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths High but Declining

Provisional data from the CDC this week show the number of U.S. drug overdose deaths, while still high, has declined.

The CDC predicts there were 106,840 drug overdose deaths for the 12-month period ended September 2022 compared with 107,937 predicted drug overdose deaths for the 12-month period ended August 2021. And when comparing month-over-month statistics in 2022, the numbers show a steady decline, starting with 110,317 predicted overdose deaths in March 2022.

In a statement last month, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Rahul Gupta, M.D. attributed the progress to the Biden administration’s efforts to remove barriers to treatment and disrupting the supply of illicit drugs.

SAMHSA Releases National Substance Use and Mental Health Services Survey, 2021

More than two-thirds of substance use treatment facilities (69.5%) offered pharmacotherapies as part of their treatment services, with a higher percentage of substance use facilities reporting they used medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for treating opioid use disorder (55.3%) than for treating alcohol use disorder (37.9%).

Those were among the findings of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Substance Use and Mental Health Services Survey, 2021 released this week.
 
Researchers gathered data from April 30, 2021 through January 10, 2022 for the 35-page report, which is the most comprehensive national source of data on substance use and mental health treatment facilities, its territories, and Washington, D.C.

NABH Submits Comments to SAMHSA on Opioid Treatment Program Regulations

This week NABH submitted a comment letter to SAMHSA on the Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) regulations 42 CFR part 8.

In it, NABH wrote that the association appreciates SAMHSA’s flexibility to OTPs, including new authority to provide methadone induction via telehealth. NABH was the first organization to advocate for this change when COVID-19 social-distancing measures made it hard for individuals to access methadone treatment.

NABH expressed concerns and called for SAMHSA to remove changes to accreditation standards that would prematurely trigger one-year or non-accreditation status.

Click here to read NABH’s letter.

NABH Submits Comments to CMS on Medicare Advantage

Also this week, NABH submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) about policy and technical changes to Medicare Advantage (MA) for calendar year 2024.

NABH noted that the association appreciates the proposed rule’s focus on improving access to and quality of care through increasing both the oversight and transparency of insurers. In particular, NABH supports the rule’s proposed improvements related to prior authorization, network adequacy, and quality of care, many of which NABH and its partners have long pursued.

The association outlined a series of recommendations to CMS on topics such as clarifying “Original Medicare” standards as minimum requirements for MA; improving medical necessity; streamlining prior authorization requirements; and, regarding the rule’s proposed reduction of the overpayment window, allowing a reasonable time of about six months for providers to conduct investigations, and, when necessary, process a refund.

Click here to read NABH’s letter.

Reminder: NABH-Manatt Telehealth Issue Brief Webinar on Wednesday, March 1

Manatt will host a webinar featuring NABH President and CEO Shawn Coughlin and some NABH members as panelists on Wednesday, March 1 at noon ET to highlight findings from the telehealth issue brief that the NABH Education and Research Foundation and Manatt released this month.

The telehealth issue brief is the first resource from the NABH Education and Research Foundation, which worked with NABH members and Manatt to compile and evaluate data to measure the impact that telehealth services have had on access and outcomes. The study showed how telehealth services effectively augment traditional partial hospitalization programs (PHP) and intensive outpatient programs (IOP).

NABH urges its members to read the issue brief and share it with others. The association has also created a social media toolkit with shareable graphics that highlight key research from the study. Members can access the issue brief and social media toolkit on the NABH Education and Research Foundation’s Resources page.

Click here to register for next month’s free webinar.

Reminder: Please Submit Data to Enhance NABH’s Managed-Care Advocacy Efforts

Thank you to all members who have submitted data to NABH’s denial-of-care portal. Your data will help NABH highlight problems in the field related to health plan denials and timeliness.

Several policymaking entities are interested in these data, which could support advocacy for expanded access to care. For new participants, please e-mail Emily Wilkins, NABH’s administrative coordinator, for support.

Details Coming Soon for the NABH 2023 Annual Meeting

Please plan to join us in Washington, DC from June 12-14, 2023 for this year’s NABH Annual Meeting at the Salamander Washington, DC (formerly the Mandarin Oriental hotel). Details coming soon.

Fact of the Week

Some data brokers are marketing highly sensitive data on individuals’ mental health conditions on the open market, with seemingly minimal vetting of customers and seemingly few controls on using purchased data, according to a study from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.