CEO Update 208
DEA Extends Authority for Telehealth Prescribing Without an In-person Visit a Third Time
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and HHS this week again temporarily extended the existing telemedicine flexibilities for the prescribing of controlled medications through Dec. 31, 2025.
This latest extension allows prescribing practitioners to prescribe controlled medications without first conducting an in-person evaluation of the patient. This third extension of this flexibility – which was introduced in January 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic – follows the first extension in May 2023 and the second in August 2023.
Among the agencies’ primary objectives for these extensions is to ensure a smooth transition for patients and practitioners who have relied on telemedicine for controlled-medication prescriptions, as well as to preserve access for those who may need this flexibility before a more permanent policy is established.
NABH and other stakeholders continue to wait for DEA and HHS to finalize two proposed rules issued in March 2023: Telemedicine Prescribing of Controlled Substances When the Practitioner and the Patient Have Not Had a Prior In-Person Medical Evaluation and the Expansion of Induction of Buprenorphine via Telemedicine Encounter.
NABH’s comments on these rules were among the 38,000 comments that stakeholders sent to the federal agencies.
APA Releases Recommendations for Healthy Teen Video Viewing
The American Psychological Association (APA) this week issued its first set of recommendations to help parents, policymakers, and tech companies empower teens to manage their viewing habits.
The APA Recommendations for Healthy Teen Video Viewing summarizes scientific research on adolescents’ viewing habits to offer guidance to parents, youth, and educators, as well as recommendations to policymakers and technical industry professionals for substantial changes.
“Research consistently shows that video content, and the platforms that host it, have the potential to help or harm teens,” APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr., Ph.D., said in an announcement about the recommendations. “It is the shared responsibility of video platforms, content creators, parents, caregivers, educators, policymakers and the technology industry to create an environment where youth can learn and express themselves safely online.”
The report calls for tech companies to change the built-in features of their platforms that can affect adolescent well-being because the APA notes platforms that recommend content to youth and switch rapidly between short-form videos and autoplay videos to extend viewing times could magnify the effects of harmful video content and contribute to maladaptive viewing habits in youth.
In addition, the report recommends limiting exposure to content that encourages violent or risky behaviors and/or reinforces negative stereotypes, especially on platforms that allow users to share content or add comments or “likes” that may endorse harmful behaviors; guiding adolescents to choose content based on quality and accuracy, especially when evaluating health related information by creators who are not licensed health professionals; teaching adolescents about false, damaging or biased information and other risks introduced by content generated by artificial intelligence (AI); encouraging access to video content that promotes empathy, learning, emotional well-being and joy; and encouraging video skills that allow adolescents to develop healthy relationship skills.
Your Expertise is Needed to Help Develop IPF Patient Assessment Instrument
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is recruiting participants to help the agency, its contractors RTI International and Abt Global, and other partners develop and test a draft patient assessment instrument, or the Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Patient Assessment Instrument (IPF-PAI).
NABH urges all members to assist CMS and participate in this important project that aims to advance care quality in IPFs. Your feedback will help inform CMS’ efforts in the agency’s rulemaking process.
Please click here to learn more and here to apply.
Call for Presenters: NABH to Kick Off AI Webinar Series in 2025
NABH is seeking presenters who have integrated AI in their business operations to share their experiences in the association’s new webinar series about AI in behavioral healthcare scheduled for Spring 2025.
The first webinar will focus on using AI to reduce administrative burden and create efficiencies, and the second webinar will highlight using AI for clinical-decision support.
Please contact NABH Associate Manager for Congressional Affairs Emily Wilkins at Emily@nabh.org by close of business on Monday, Dec. 16 if you are interested in participating.
ICYMI: NABH’s Webinar on Using Publicly Available Data in Health Plan Negotiations
NABH on Nov. 14 hosted a webinar about using hospital data effectively in your negotiations with health plans.
The webinar featured Erica K. Fox, M.B.A., vice president of business development and managed care contracting at Perimeter Healthcare. Please click here for the webinar’s recording and here for the presentation slides.
Please Visit Our New Website!
NABH’s website is live! NABH has designed our updated site to help members, policymakers, journalists, patient advocates, and the general public learn about our association and the resources we provide in a way that is easier to navigate so you find what you’re looking for quickly and efficiently.
We have also updated our member password, which is required for member-only resources, such as our letters to congressional offices and regulatory agencies, as well as previous editions of CEO Update (all of which can be found by clicking on the “News” tab. NABH members should refer to the NABH Alert they received on Thursday, Oct. 31 for the new member password.
Please e-mail nabh@nabh.org with any questions or feedback you may have about the new site.
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 Emily Wilkins with questions about the data metrics that we are collecting and/or the data-submission process.
Fact of the Week
The University of South Florida will track young people through 2050 to learn more about the long-term effects of smartphones, social media, and other digital media on individual wellbeing.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The NABH staff wishes its members and their families a very happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving! NABH will not publish CEO Update next week and will resume on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.