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!
SAMHSA and ONC Launch Behavioral Health Information Technology Initiative
HHS’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) this week announced they will invest more than $20 million of SAMHSA funds in the next three years to advance health information technology (IT) in behavioral healthcare and practice settings.
The announcement acknowledged that behavioral healthcare providers lag behind other providers in health IT adoption in part because they are ineligible to participate in health IT incentive programs that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provide. An ONC analysis of American Hospital Association survey data from 2019 and 2021 found that 86% of non-federal, general acute care hospitals had adopted a 2015-edition certified electronic health record (EHR), while only 67% of psychiatric hospitals had adopted the same certified EHR.
Meanwhile, ONC
analysis of SAMHSA survey
data from 2020 show psychiatric hospitals lag even further behind in adoption of interoperability and patient engagement functions.
To address these challenges, the Behavioral Health Information Technology (BHIT) Initiative will identify and pilot a set of behavioral health-specific data elements with SAMHSA’s
Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant and Community Mental Health Services Block Grant grantees and
Community Mental Health Services Block Grant grantees. The data elements will be coordinated via a new
USCDI+ domain for behavioral health to improve the effectiveness and reduce the costs of data capture, use, and exchange for behavioral health providers.
This year ONC, SAMHSA, and other federal partners will begin to identify data elements for the USCDI+ project as part of the broader BHIT Initiative. This collaborative approach will incorporate input on behavioral health priorities from a variety of individuals and entities including clinicians, grantees, states, and advocates.
Then SAMHSA and ONC will coordinate with technology developers and participating providers on how to best include USCDI+ behavioral health data elements in health IT and pilot their use.
HHS Finalizes ‘42 CFR Part 2’ Rule to Better Align with HIPAA Standards
HHS on Thursday released its final Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Patient Records rule to implement the
Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) amendments to the federal substance use confidentiality rule – commonly known as 42 CFR part 2, or Part 2.
Consistent with NABH recommendations, the new rules further align Part 2’s requirements with the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (HIPAA) rules and the
Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH).
Although opponents to these changes argued they were unnecessary, HHS nonetheless adopted these modifications to align with HIPAA, a rule that has historically had fewer privacy protections than part 2.
The new rule permits patients to provide one-time consent for the disclosure of treatment records; permits an accounting of disclosures; strengthens prohibitions against disclosure of records in civil, criminal, or legislative proceedings, and provides HHS with enforcement authority, including financial penalties.
Importantly, the rule creates a new definition for SUD clinicians’ notes that is analogous to the protections HIPAA provides for psychotherapy notes.
The rule will become effective 60 days after publication and compliance is not required until 2026.
Meanwhile, HHS’ Office for Civil Rights plans to finalize changes to the HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) to address uses and disclosures of protected health information that is also protected by Part 2 along with other changes to the NPP requirements, in an upcoming final rule modifying the HIPAA privacy. In addition, HHS plans to implement in separate rulemaking the
CARES Act antidiscrimination provisions that prohibit the use of patients’ Part 2 records against them.
CMS Releases Updated State Medicaid & CHIP Telehealth Toolkit
CMS this week released an updated State Medicaid & Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Telehealth
Toolkit, a series of resources that include telehealth policies and information about telehealth platforms, billing best practices, strategies to deliver accessible and culturally competent care via telehealth, and more.
The resources provide states with statutory and regulatory infrastructure issues to consider as they evaluate the need to expand their telehealth capabilities and coverage policies, including coverage and reimbursement policies, providers, and practitioners eligible to provider telehealth, technology requirements, considerations for specific populations, and state examples and strategies.
Prevent Suicide New Jersey to Host Safety Planning Intervention Workshop on Feb. 28
Prevent Suicide New Jersey, a partnership among state departments, professional and community organizations, schools, and families, will host a free workshop on Feb. 28 about the Stanley Brown Safety Planning Intervention (SPI), a collaborative, clinical intervention that results in a prioritized written list of warning signs, coping strategies, and resources for suicidal individuals.
The virtual workshop will teach participants the six steps to create a safety plan:
1) recognizing warning signs; 2) identifying internal coping strategies; 3) identifying other people or social settings for distraction; 4) identifying individuals to ask for help; 5) identifying professionals and agencies for help; and 6) making the environment safe.
The New Jersey Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics (NJAAP), ABFT International Training Institute, LLC, and the U.S. Journal of Training are co-sponsoring the training, and the webinar is open to certified licensed community behavioral health clinicians, school-based behavioral health providers, and interested community members.
Click
here to register.
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
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of Miami have identified a molecule that reduces hypersensitivity in trials in mice by binding to a protein they have shown is involved in neuropathic pain, according to a
study published in
Science Daily. The new compound, dubbed FEM-1689, does not engage opioid receptors in the body, making it a possible alternative to existing pain medications linked to addiction.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.