CEO Update 220
NABH Recommends a Distinct Cybersecurity Proposal for Behavioral Healthcare
NABH submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on a proposed rule to strengthen cybersecurity for protected health information. Our comments express strong caution that the proposed rule does not account for the limited health information technology (HIT) capacity in the behavioral healthcare field.
Despite the ongoing urgency of the behavioral healthcare crisis, too many behavioral healthcare providers continue to lag a generation behind the HIT capacity of our physical healthcare peers – largely due to the exclusion of many behavioral healthcare providers from the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.
With these concerns in mind, NABH recommended that OCR conduct a review of behavioral healthcare providers’ HIT assets and capacity, relative to the specific technical components of the proposed rule.
NABH Welcomes VA Secretary Collins in Letter Emphasizing Attention to Veterans’ Behavioral Healthcare Needs
On Tuesday, NABH sent a letter to Doug Collins congratulating him on being confirmed as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The letter highlights the significant behavioral health conditions experienced by veterans, ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder to alcohol use disorder, as well as the high rate of suicide.
The letter also describes the importance of access to behavioral healthcare services offered by third-party providers to augment services delivered within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system: “The VA’s Community Care Program offers critical flexibility, ensuring there is always capacity available when and where a veteran needs it – even when a wait list at a local VA is long.”
The letter continues by describing challenges that NABH members have encountered with VA gatekeepers for the Community Care Program, resulting in barriers for veterans to access third-party providers despite them facing lengthy wait times for care at VA facilities.
CMS Rescinds Guidance on Health-Related Social Needs
This week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rescinded guidance on coverage of services for health-related social needs (HRSN) – including housing and nutrition interventions – in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
These guidance documents described the various pathways for states to offer coverage for HRSN services for populations in need, such as beneficiaries who have behavioral health conditions or are transitioning out of institutional care settings. As of November 2024, ten states had received approval from CMS to cover HRSN services through a Section 1115 demonstration, one of several pathways.
Going forward, CMS will assess states’ applications to cover HRSN services on a case-by-case basis.
Register Today for the 2025 NABH Annual Meeting!
Registration is now open for the 2025 NABH Annual Meeting, Behavioral Health is Everyone’s Concern: Constant Care, Changing Times, from May 12-14, 2025 at the Salamander Washington, DC!
2025 marks 60 years since President Lyndon Johnson passed The Social Security Amendments of 1965 that created the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Although much has changed in the U.S. behavioral healthcare system in six decades, one thing remains constant: our members’ devotion to delivering quality care and treatment.
Please join us to network with your peers; learn from experts about critical topics such as parity, workforce, and information technology; visit your congressional leaders on Capitol Hill; and explore new products and resources from our exhibitors.
Click here to register and reserve your hotel room today.
We look forward to seeing you in Washington!
ICYMI: NABH Releases Quality Resources on Patient and Staff Health & Safety
NABH recently 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.
ICYMI: Please Read and Share NABH’s 2025 Advocacy Priorities!
NABH recently 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!
Fact of the Week
According to a recent study published in Health Affairs, Medicare enrollment at age 65 led to a 14% increase in visits to primary care providers and a 31% increase in visits to other providers, with the former more prominent among Medicare Advantage enrollees. However, visits to mental healthcare providers did not change.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.