CEO Update 218
NABH Releases Quality Resources on Patient and Staff Health & Safety
NABH has developed two quality-related resources to help members learn from their peers and inform policymakers, regulators, and the media about the innovative ways our members are working to protect their patients and staff.
Inpatient Psychiatric Hospitals and Units Implement Effective Violence-Prevention Measures highlights in bullet-list form how inpatient psychiatric hospital providers apply significant prevention protocols beyond existing workplace safety measures that state and federal laws require. Often inpatient psychiatric hospitals employ additional methods that protect staff who treat a range of patients treated in their hospitals, especially those who are admitted because of their violent behaviors.
Meanwhile, in The Right Place at the Right Time: Behavioral Healthcare Solutions to ED Boarding, NABH shares the methods and best practices that association members Avera Behavioral Health Services in South Dakota, Mass General Brigham (an integrated health system that includes NABH member McLean Hospital) in Massachusetts, Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care in New Jersey, and Sharp Mesa Vista in California have developed and implemented successful solutions to the persistent problem of “boarding,” the practice of holding patients with behavioral health conditions in a hospital’s Emergency Department (ED) after admission because no inpatient beds are available.
NABH has posted these factsheets in the Resources section of our homepage and will promote both on LinkedIn at the National Association for Behavioral Healthcare and @NABHBehavioral. Please share these tools with your teams and others who would find the information useful!
The association thanks members of the NABH Quality Committee for their ideas and their help developing these resources.
ERIC Requests Stay of Enforcement of September 2024 Final Parity Rule
In an announcement on its website Thursday, the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) said it has requested a stay of enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) final parity rule released last September while the organization’s lawsuit against HHS, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) and the U.S. Treasury Department challenging the rule’s validity is ongoing.
The announcement said former DOL Secretary Eugene Scalia, a partner with the firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher that represents ERIC, sent a letter to the three cabinet departments on Feb. 14 asking the agencies to postpone the final rule’s effective date while litigation is pending, which would effectively stay the rule’s enforcement.
“ERIC and stakeholders across the employer and behavioral health community long cautioned that the Biden administration’s mental health parity rule could create unintended and adverse consequences,” ERIC’s statement said. “Now that portions of the final rule have gone into effect, those consequences threaten to raise costs and jeopardize patients’ access to safe, effective, and medically necessary mental health support. Taking action to stay the mental health parity rule provides needed certainty to all parties as the suit works its way through the judicial process.”
NABH posted a statement about ERIC’s lawsuit in January.
ICYMI: NABH 2025 Advocacy Priorities Now Available!
NABH last week released its 2025 Advocacy Priorities, which we urge you to read and share with your Government Relations teams and others.
Leading NABH’s 2025 Advocacy Priorities are parity, workforce, behavioral healthcare information technology, America’s ongoing addiction crisis, and the Institutions for Mental Diseases (IMD) exclusion.
NABH will continue to promote the 2025 Advocacy Priorities @NABHBehavioral and at the National Association for Behavioral Healthcare on LinkedIn. Please follow us on these platforms and help us promote your priorities!
ICYMI: NABH’s Safe Connections Campaign Highlights Cyber-aggression
NABH recently released and promoted two new resources about cyber-aggression as part of its Safe Connections campaign about healthy minds and social media habits for America’s youth.
Please visit our Youth Services page to access all of the Safe Connections resources and share our social media posts on LinkedIn and X.
NABH thanks Donald Grant, Ph.D., with Newport Healthcare, and the NABH Youth Services Committee for its work on this campaign.
Join Us in May for the 2025 NABH Annual Meeting!
Please plan to join your peers and the NABH team at the Salamander Washington, DC from May 12-14 for this year’s NABH Annual Meeting: Behavioral Health is Everyone’s Concern: Constant Care, Changing Times.
Our thanks to this year’s Annual Meeting Program Committee, which approved this year’s theme. NABH Board Member Patricia Toole, M.A.S. from Hackensack Meridian Health Carrier Clinic chairs the Program Committee, which also includes NABH members Mary-Catherine Bohan, M.S.W. from Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care and Rhonda Ashley-Dixon, M.A. from Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics.
Annual Meeting registration will open in late February. We look forward to seeing you in Washington!
Fact of the Week
More than 40% of physicians, medical school students, and residents cite the fear of disclosure requirements on licensure forms as a main reason they seek mental healthcare, according to the American Medical Association, which is advocating for legislative and regulatory changes.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.