NABH Responds to Senate HELP Committee RFI About U.S. Healthcare Workforce Shortage
NABH thanks its many members who submitted comments detailing their workforce challenges and potential solutions, which helped form the association’s response to the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee’s request for information earlier this week.
In its six-page
letter, NABH noted that America’s behavioral healthcare workforce shortage has reached a crisis point, with nearly 58 million adults reporting any mental illness, about 61 million people using illicit drugs, and more than 150 million people living in federally designated mental health professional shortage areas at a time when the U.S. psychiatrist workforce will contract through 2024 to a projected low of 38,821, equal to a shortage of between 14,280 and 31,091 psychiatrists.
A diminished candidate pool, a limited employee pipeline, workplace violence, employee satisfaction in a post-pandemic environment, a highly competitive workforce, over-regulation, and an extremely limited health information technology infrastructure were the leading drivers of the segment’s workforce shortage, the association noted, based on NABH system member responses. The letter then summarized a range of solutions under the categories of reimbursement at parity, additional funding for training programs, and deregulation.
NABH will discuss how to address the behavioral healthcare workforce shortage in two sessions at the 2023 NABH Annual Meeting on Monday, June 12.
NABH Addresses Federal Lawmakers’ Stigmatizing Comments about OTPs
NABH this week sent a
letter to federal lawmakers expressing deep disappointment with the congressional leaders’ recent comments that compared the nation’s opioid treatment programs (OTPs) with drug cartels and characterized this behavioral healthcare segment as an industry protecting its profits.
“These comments are highly stigmatizing to the approximately 18,000 staff who work in OTPs and have dedicated their careers to delivering life-saving services to individuals with opioid use disorders (OUD),” NABH wrote in a letter to Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.) and Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) “Your comments also perpetuate the ongoing stigma against medication-assisted treatment (MAT) that plagues our society,” the letter continued. “This stigma is one of the primary reasons that people with OUD do not seek, nor receive, MAT, even though it is the evidence-based, gold standard of care for patients suffering from OUD. We are confident you both agree that with our nation facing an overdose epidemic with one death every five minutes, we cannot afford to lose ground in the battle against stigmatization in addiction care.”
The letter highlights strengths and weaknesses of recent regulatory reforms and current legislation. It also provides a series of recommendations for lawmakers, such as examining the effects of recent efforts to expand access, with a specific focus on understanding the root causes behind incremental overdoses as well as the disproportionate harm that marginalized populations suffer; addressing significant barriers to treatment; and studying the potential impact of leveraging community-based pharmacies in the United States to dispense methadone widely to patients while ensuring that adequate regulatory controls can be established, given the concerning behaviors by pharmacies that recent court proceedings have documented.
NABH Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of Nine Organizations in Wit v. UBH Ruling
NABH has filed an amicus
brief that supports a petition for rehearing the ongoing
Wit v. United Behavioral Health (UBH) case.
A three-judge panel in the 9
th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan. 26 replaced its March 2022 ruling in the
Wit v. UBH case with a new opinion that was a major disappointment to both mental health patients and providers.
NABH asserts the latest opinion will materially reduce the benefit of insurance because it does not protect medically necessary treatment based on generally accepted standards of care.
NIH Study Reveals Shared Genetic Markers Underlying SUD
Scientists have identified genes commonly inherited across addiction disorders, regardless of the substance used, according to a study published in
Nature Mental Health.
With support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Institute on Aging, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, along with more than 150 coauthors worldwide, analyzed genomic data from more than 1 million people.
Their findings also reinforce the role of the dopamine system in addiction, by showing that the combination of genes underlying addiction disorders was also associated with regulation of dopamine signaling. Click
here to learn more.
SAMHSA Announces Funding Opportunity to Establish or Implement Opioid Recovery Centers
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced it will grant up to $1.4 million in two awards to establish or implement comprehensive treatment and recovery centers that provide a spectrum of treatment, harm reduction, and recovery support services to address America’s opioid crisis.
Applications are due Tuesday, May 16. Click
here to learn more and apply.
Advertise in the 2023 NABH Exhibitor and Sponsor Guide!
NABH will distribute the
2023 NABH Exhibitor and Sponsor Guide to all registrants at the 2023 NABH Annual Meeting from June 12-14, 2023 at the Salamander Washington, DC. Be sure your organization is included in it!
All ads are due by April 21, 2023. Please click
here for details about advertising options, requirements, payment, and more.
The association also will send the guide to all NABH members after the meeting and post it on the NABH Annual Meeting webpage.
Register and Reserve Your Hotel Room Today for the 2023 NABH Annual Meeting!
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!
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
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
reports that research shows the effects of solitary confinement on mental health are often fatal, both during and after incarceration. A recent showed individuals were overall 24% more likely to die in the first year after release, including from suicide (78% more likely) and homicide (54% more likely). They were also 127% more likely to die of an opioid overdose in the first two weeks after release.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.
