CEO Update 173
Biden Administration Announces $1.5 Billion Investment in Healthcare Workforce
Vice President Kamala Harris this week said the Biden administration will invest $1.5 billion from the American Rescue Plan in the National Health Service Corps, Nurse Corps, and Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery programs to expand and diversify the healthcare workforce and improve clinical care in underserved communities.
According to a White House announcement, the funding will support more than 22,000 providers, which the administration said is the largest “field strength in history for these programs and a record number of skilled doctors, dentists, nurses, and behavioral health providers committed to working in underserved communities during a moment when we need them the most.”
The announcement is a response to recommendations from the Presidential Covid-19 Health Equity Task Force, which submitted its final report to the White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator earlier this month.
NABH Provides Comments to CMS about Two Potential IPFQR Program Measures
NABH this week sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on the development of two new measures for potential use in the Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Quality Reporting (IPFQR) program: Improvement in the Depression Symptoms During the IPF Stay, and the 30-Day Risk Standardized All-Cause Mortality Following Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Discharge.
For the first measure, NABH said it is concerned that the electronic version of the PROMIS measure is not in the public domain, which means that providers would have to purchase access. Providers are not permitted to implement their own version of the PROMIS depression scale.
“Moreover, the vendor with the licensing rights for the electronic form requires providers to purchase the entire PROMIS suite even if providers need only the part regarding depression,” NABH continued in its letter to CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “Any measure used for the IPFQR Program should be in the public domain in both electronic and paper formats to ensure access.”
The second measure reflects the percentage of adult patients who died from any cause, within 30 days of discharge from an IPF. These data will be risk-adjusted to account for sociodemographic characteristics and medical acuity (i.e., by age, sex, gender, primary discharge diagnosis, and history of suicide attempt, ideation, or intentional harm).
NABH noted that co-occurring physical health conditions highlighted in the rationale for this measure take a toll on individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) over long periods of time.
“It seems illogical to suggest that a short inpatient stay is the best way to address this issue,” NABH said in the letter. “The framing document also mentions suicide as another significant cause of death following inpatient hospitalization, but surprisingly the document does not discuss how to address this issue.”
Provider Relief Fund Reporting Period 1 Ends Nov. 30
The 60-day grace period for the Provider Relief Fund (PRF) Reporting Period 1 ends next Tuesday, Nov. 30.
Non-compliant providers still have time to complete their reporting requirements, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), by submitting their report to the PRF reporting portal by Nov. 30. Providers who fail to meet the deadline will be required to return their PRF payments by Dec. 30, 2021.
HRSA has published a Returning Funds Fact Sheet and additional information is available on the PRF Reporting Resources webpage.
SAMHSA Releases Advisory on Prescription Stimulant Misuse Among Youth and Young Adults
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released Prescription Stimulant Misuse Among Youth and Young Adults, an advisory that establishes stimulant misuse as a public health problem, identifies associated risk and protective factors, reviews evidence on prescription stimulant misuse among youth and adults, and provides actions for stakeholders to prevent misuse.
“The prevalence of prescription drug misuse is highest among young adults between the ages of 18 and 25; over 11 percent report the misuse of prescription drugs in the past year,” the advisory noted. “Similarly, over 4 percent of youth between the ages of 12 and 17 report prescription drug misuse in the past year,” it continued. “Although the overall prevalence of prescription drug misuse among youth and young adults has declined in recent years, its relatively high rate among young adults, in particular, is concerning.”
GAO Highlights Actions for Federal Government to Address Drug Misuse
Following the recent news that U.S. drug overdose deaths surpassed 100,000, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a blog post highlighting the federal agency’s reports regarding how the federal government can address this issue.
“In 2019, before the pandemic, we raised this issue as a critical one needing attention and in 2020, we decided to add drug misuse to our High Risk List—a list of areas that need immediate attention,” the GAO blog post noted. “And since then we have been looking at how the pandemic has impacted these issues.”
Click here to read the blog post, which includes links to the National Drug Control Strategy and the GAO’s earlier reports and recommendations.
Reminder: NABH Denial-of-Care Portal is Open to Members
NABH’s Denial-of-Care Portal is available for members to provide information about their experiences with managed care organizations that impose barriers to care through insurance-claim denials.
NABH’s Managed Care Committee worked for more than a year to develop the Denial-of-Care Portal as a way to collect specific data on insurers who deny care—often without regard for parity or the effects on patients.
This NABH member-only, survey-like tool allows users to add the name of a managed care organization, type of plan, level of care, type of care (mental health or substance use disorder), duration of approved treatment, duration of unapproved treatment, criteria used to deny a claim, and more.
The portal allows members to submit individual examples of claim denials or upload multiple entries via Excel. It also includes sections on appeals and physician participation. In time, the tool could be a valuable resource for the NABH team’s advocacy efforts.
Please e-mail Emily Wilkins, NABH’s administrative coordinator, if you have questions about the portal.
Fact of the Week
The Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2021 Employee Health Benefits Survey reports that at companies with at least 50 workers, 39% have made changes to their mental health and substance use benefits this year, and 31% increased the ways employees can access those services, including telemedicine.
Happy Thanksgiving from NABH!
The NABH staff wishes its members and their families a very happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving!
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.