NABH Welcomes Frank Ghinassi, Ph.D. as 2024 Board Chair
NABH is pleased to welcome Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) President and CEO
Frank Ghinassi, Ph.D. as chair of the NABH Board of Trustees for 2024.
A longstanding NABH member, Frank has served the association in many capacities, including as board treasurer, Quality Committee chair, and Annual Meeting program chair.
As UBHC’s CEO, Frank is responsible for a statewide system of academically based mental health and addiction services across New Jersey; managing an annual operating budget of $320 million and 2,200 staff and faculty. UBHC, one of the largest providers of behavioral and addictions healthcare in the country, offers a wide range of clinical services across all diagnosis, and across the lifespan, including inpatient units, partial hospitalization programs, intensive outpatient programming, case management, traditional outpatient treatment, correctional health care, a Certified Community Behavioral Health Center, peer operated helplines for service members, veterans, mothers of children with special needs, law enforcement officers and child protection workers, a statewide suicide prevention hotline and a clinical research and training institute, as well as an array of specialty and peer support services.
Frank also serves as professor at Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology; an adjunct professor of psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; an adjunct associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; and a core faculty member at Rutgers Global Health Institute.
The association’s Washington-based team is eager to work with Frank this year and appreciates his vision and leadership.
NABH is also grateful to Sheppard Pratt President and CEO
Harsh Trivedi, M.D., M.B.A. for his service as the association’s 2023 board chair and all he has done to promote NABH, its priorities, and its mission. Thank you, Harsh!
NABH Letter to CMS Cites Concerns about Medicare Advantage Plans that Block Access to Care
NABH this week sent a
letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expressing concerns about Medicare Advantage (MA) plans that either block or delay access to behavioral healthcare services.
The association’s letter endorsed and also made recommendations related to the rule’s positive provisions, such as incentivizing MA coverage for additional behavioral healthcare practitioners and inclusion in a health plans’ provider networks; annually analyzing the health equity level of MA plans relative to underserved populations; and laying the groundwork for increased data collection on MA coverage decisions, appeals and decision rationales.
NABH’s letter also urged CMS to modify its existing proposal to improve the appeals process for MA enrollees in certain settings to include behavioral healthcare settings, which the letter describes in detail.
Sen. John Fetterman Discusses His Battle with Depression on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’
In an exclusive interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Dec. 31, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) spoke candidly about his experience with clinical depression and how he is grateful for receiving treatment.
The first-term senator was discharged March 31 from Walter Reed National Medical Center, where he had received treatment for clinical depression. Fetterman checked himself in for treatment on Feb. 15 last year following a battle with depression that worsened during his recovery from a stroke he suffered in May 2022.
“The line [is] ‘I’m living my best life,’ and I really am, because I just am so grateful,” Fetterman told journalist Kristen Welker. “And I’m always talking about mental health because I want everybody that can hear that is that help works, and you should get help. And please, don’t suffer any longer, because you deserve to be better. And I’m so grateful to do that, and I’m paying it forward by talking about it.”
Click
here to watch Fetterman’s interview.
NABH Education and Research Foundation to Host Workforce Webinar on Jan. 23
The
NABH Education and Research Foundation is pleased to host its first webinar,
Redesigning the Present and Future of Behavioral Healthcare, on
Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024 from 2 p.m. – 3 p.m. ET.
NABH Education and Research Foundation President Donald Parker, who serves as president of Behavioral Health Care Transformation Services for Hackensack Meridian Health, will co-lead the webinar with workforce consultant Beth Kuhn of
Stonegate Strategies.
Kuhn has more than 30 years of workforce experience – with special interest and expertise in behavioral healthcare workforce development – 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. Kuhn’s accomplishments include creating the Strategic Initiative for Transformation Employment, or
SITE, a statewide model designed to bridge the gap between recovery and workforce participation for individuals active in their recovery from substance use issues.
Throughout this interactive webinar, participants are encouraged to ask questions of Parker and Kuhn, who will provide an overview of existing behavioral healthcare workforce challenges; explain why America’s current workforce structure doesn’t meet present or future workforce needs; suggest redesign strategies, present examples of current successes; and offer ideas about how to leverage current options to help providers develop a more robust workforce system.
The Foundation will also ask attendees poll questions during the hourlong webinar to gauge member interest in future workforce events and resources.
Please join us and click
here to register for this free webinar!
National Academies to Host Webinar on Behavioral Healthcare Provider Experience with Public Insurance Programs Next Week
The National Academies’ Committee on Strategies to Improve Access to Behavioral Health Care Services through Medicare and Medicaid will host a virtual webinar that discusses behavioral healthcare provider experiences with public insurance programs on Wednesday, Jan. 10.
This webinar will examine the experiences of behavioral healthcare providers who accept Medicare, Medicaid, and Marketplace insurance and discuss what can be done to increase access to behavioral healthcare services for this patient population.
Click
here to register for the two-hour webinar, which starts at 2 p.m. ET next Wednesday.
Reminder: NABH’s Enhanced Denial-of-Care Portal is Now Available
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.
Save the Date for the NABH 2024 Annual Meeting!
Please mark your calendars and plan to join us at the Salamander Washington, DC from
May 13-15, 2024 for this year’s NABH Annual Meeting!
Fact of the Week
A new
study in
Psychiatry Research suggests ethnoracial inequities in patient assignment to buildings that differed in clinical and physical conditions. Examining data from more than 18,000 unique patients during a period of six years, researchers said the findings serve as a call to action for hospital systems to examine the ways in which structural racism impact clinical care.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.
