CEO Update 199
Reminder: Please Submit Updated Member Information by Next Friday, Sept. 13!
NABH is developing its online-only 2024 Membership Directory, an essential member benefit that helps the association in its advocacy efforts.
Last month NABH e-mailed system members a link to the association’s membership-update tool. To help ensure we have the most accurate information on our members, please use the link to our membership-update tool and verify your system’s information.
The answers to these questions will help us provide a more accurate description of our diverse membership to policymakers, regulators, partner organizations, and the media. Please be sure to enter information for all of your system’s facilities so that we have a better picture of our membership.
The deadline to submit your changes to NABH is next Friday, Sept. 13. If you need assistance, please contact Maria Merlie maria@nabh.org or 202-393-6700, ext. 104.
As always, thank you for your time and for all you do to advance NABH’s Mission and Vision!
Former CDC Directors Caution that Paring Down Agency Could Cost Lives and Damage Economy
Eight former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) directors penned an op-ed this week in STAT that warns cutting funding to the Atlanta-based public health agency could endanger lives and the U.S. economy.
“One misguided narrative is that the CDC should focus only on a ‘core mission’ of combatting infectious diseases,” wrote former directors William Foege, William Roper, Jeffrey Koplan, Julie Gerberding, Tom Frieden, Brenda Fitzgerald, Robert Redfield, and Rochelle Walensky, all of whom are physicians. “In fact, the core mission of the CDC is to save lives and protect Americans from all health threats — not only infectious diseases but also cancer, environmental risks, injuries, and the conditions that are the leading causes of death among Americans.”
They added that the CDC has helped save millions of lives through reduced tobacco and alcohol use, diabetes prevention and control, injury prevention including reducing traumatic brain injury, healthier pregnancies with lower maternal mortality, and other health-protection programs.
“Limiting our health defense to just some threats would be like allowing our military to protect us from only some types of attack, telling the National Weather Service to warn people about tornadoes but not hurricanes, or allowing doctors to treat only some diseases,” they continued.
The piece is a response to a Republican bill that would cut funding to the CDC by 22% and also to an op-ed earlier this year from Scott Gottlieb, M.D., former director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who now serves on the board of Pfizer.
September Issue of JAMA Pediatrics Includes Several Mental Health-Related Articles
NABH calls members’ attention the September edition of JAMA Pediatrics, which includes a number of articles focused on mental health.
Topics include healthcare needs and costs for children exposed to prenatal substance use, hospital admissions for eating disorders, mental health of transgender youth following gender identity milestones, and more.
September is National Recovery Month and Suicide Prevention Month
September is National Recovery Month, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will commemorate the annual observance with a campaign focused on the four dimensions of recovery: health, home, purpose, and community.
Week One will emphasize health and will highlight choices that support well-being – such as eating a nutritious diet, exercising regularly, developing healthy sleeping habits, and managing other health issues –that can help support people with mental health and substance use conditions in their journey to recovery. Click here to access SAMHSA’s Recovery Month social media toolkit.
September is also Suicide Prevention Month, and SAMHSA has created a separate toolkit with hashtags and posts for the month and also World Suicide Prevention Day on Sept. 10 to remember the lives of those lost to suicide.
Reminder: Join NABH for World Suicide Prevention Day Webinar on Sept. 10
Please join NABH this coming Tuesday, Sept. 10, World Suicide Prevention Day, for a webinar that will feature two experts who will highlight HHS’ 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, a 10-year, comprehensive, societal approach to suicide prevention that provides concrete recommendations for addressing gaps in the suicide-prevention field.
NABH will welcome Julie Goldstein Grumet, Ph.D., vice president of suicide prevention strategy at the Education Development Center (EDC) and director of the EDC’s Zero Suicide Institute; and Colleen Carr, M.P.H., director of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention.
Grumet and Carr will discuss the core strategic directions of the National Strategy; provide context on how these goals fit into current efforts by health systems, providers, and their partners in the field; highlight opportunities to support National Strategy implementation efforts; and what to expect – as well as how to engage – as the new strategy rolls out.
The discussion will also include an overview of key NABH priorities reflected in the new strategy, including workplace violence prevention and current efforts to protect and advance workforce wellbeing, including suicide prevention.
Please click here to register for this hourlong webinar on Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET.
Join NABH for October Webinar on Using Publicly Available Data in Health Plan Negotiations
Please join NABH for a webinar to learn about using hospital data to improve negotiations with health plans on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024.
The webinar will feature Erica K. Fox, M.B.A., vice president of business development and managed care contracting at Perimeter Healthcare. A member of NABH’s Managed Care Committee, Fox will review the use of publicly available data from hospitals, such as payer-specific negotiated rates and standard charges for all payers and plans, to negotiate contracts with health plans.
Fox has more than 25 years of senior leadership experience in the behavioral health sector. Prior to her current role, she served as the business development director at Peachford Hospital, a Universal Health Services facility. Fox earned her undergraduate degree from Michigan State University, where she received a dual degree in Communications and Spanish. She later earned a master’s degree in healthcare administration from Loyola University Chicago.
Please register here for this hourlong webinar on Wednesday, Oct. 16 starting at 2 p.m. ET. We hope you join us!
Please Submit Data to NABH’s Denial-of-Care Portal
We urge all NABH members to join those already submitting data to our Denial-of-Care Portal.
We are beginning to use aggregated portal data to illustrate and compare prior authorization practices for commercial, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid managed care denials.
Policymakers have expressed particular interest in our aggregate estimate on days of uncompensated charity care, as well as the length of delayed health plan responses to prior-authorization requests.
To support this advocacy push, we strongly encourage all NABH members to submit data to the portal. Please contact NABH Associate Manager for Congressional Affair Emily Wilkins with questions about the data metrics that we are collecting and/or the data-submission process.
Fact of the Week
An analysis of provisional data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that between 2015 and 2023, there was a nearly five-fold increase in overdose deaths among non-Hispanic Black men 55 and older.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.