CEO Update 228
House Energy & Commerce Committee Expected to Start FY 2026 Budget Bill Mark-Up on May 12
Continuing – and contentious – negotiations have caused the House Energy and Commerce Committee to postpone its planned markup of the fiscal year (FY) 2026 reconciliation package to Monday, May 12.
The Energy & Commerce Committee is considering multiple, significant proposals that would result in reduced federal funding for Medicaid. NABH has focused its advocacy efforts on members of the Energy & Commerce Committee, which must find $880 billion in savings, according to the recently passed FY 2026 budget resolution.
These savings will likely result in Medicaid cuts that would have a devastating effect on behavioral healthcare providers, and, most importantly, patients.
NABH’s message to Members of Congress urges them to oppose:
- Reducing provider taxes,
- Reducing state-directed payments,
- Capping Medicaid expansion, and
- Mandating work requirements.
Medicaid cuts would directly or indirectly limit or eliminate access to behavioral healthcare services for current beneficiaries in states that must reduce the size of their Medicaid programs due to some combination of these cuts.
In addition to government relations team outreach, NABH is also using a new grassroots platform that allows NABH members located in the congressional districts of Energy & Commerce Committee members to quickly and easily e-mail their congressional representative with a prepared letter that opposes Medicaid cuts. NABH members also have the option to personalize their correspondence.
NABH will make the same request of all NABH members next week in another action alert.
Medicaid cuts and the effects those cuts would have on our patient population will also be the main topic for discussion when NABH members head to Capitol Hill on our annual Hill Day, Wednesday, May 14.
House Energy & Commerce Committee Passes SUPPORT Act
The House Energy & Commerce Committee this week passed H.R. 2483, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act of 2025 which funds critical treatment and recovery programs for opioid abuse and expands access to addiction medicines such as buprenorphine.
What typically would have been a unanimous vote resulted this time in a nearly party line vote of 36 -13. The original law authorizing overdose-fighting programs expired more than 18 months ago and Congress has continued to fund it.
The Energy and Commerce Committee approved the same bill unanimously in July 2023; however, a majority of Democrats opposed it on April 29, underscoring their frustration that the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency’s cost-cutting campaign is undermining the few areas of bipartisan agreement that still exist in Washington.
Last year, overdose deaths fell from highs that exceeded 110,000 a year during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Still, more than 80,000 Americans died from an overdose during the 12 months ending last November.
The original SUPPORT Act authorized $20 billion in treatment, prevention and recovery funding. Its reauthorization was part of a major bipartisan, bicameral health care package during the first Trump Administration. The bill next goes to the House Floor, before consideration in the Senate.
CMS Considers Utilization-Management Changes
Modern Healthcare reported on Tuesday, April 29 that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is considering options to reduce delays in care associated with utilization management controls across health plans.
In particular, the agency is exploring ways to limit the use of prior authorization, as well as automate coverage determinations. This effort aligns with statements made by Mehmet Oz, M.D. during his confirmation hearing for CMS administrator, where he suggested streamlining the prior authorization process.
CMS Deputy Chief Medical Officer Shari Ling, M.D. to Kick Off 2025 Annual Meeting
NABH is pleased to announce the CMS Deputy Chief Medical Officer Shari M. Ling, M.D. will kick off this year’s Annual Meeting on Monday, May 12!
Dr. Ling serves in the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ), where she is responsible for assisting the agency’s chief medical officer to pursue higher quality healthcare, healthier populations, and lower cost through quality improvement. Dr. Ling’s long-standing focus has been to achieve meaningful health outcomes through delivery of high quality, beneficiary-centered care across all care settings, with a special interest in the care of persons with multiple chronic conditions and functional limitations and reducing health disparities.
At the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS), Dr. Ling represents CMS on the HHS Multiple Chronic Conditions Workgroup and serves as the clinical sub-group lead for the HHS National Alzheimer’s Project Act.
A gerontologist, Dr. Ling received her medical training at Georgetown University School of Medicine and her clinical training in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at Georgetown University Medical Center. She also completed Geriatric Medicine studies at Johns Hopkins University and received her training in Direct Service from the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California and served as the co-director of the Andrus Older Adult Counseling Center. Dr. Ling volunteers at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Baltimore.
At the NABH Annual Meeting, Dr. Ling will discuss the connection between behavioral health within the context of preventive care and chronic conditions. Please help us welcome her in the Salamander Washington, DC’s Grand Ballroom on May 12 at 3 p.m. ET.
View This Year’s Annual Meeting Exhibitors & Sponsors!
NABH appreciates the generous support of our exhibitors and sponsors, whose valuable products and services help NABH members deliver quality behavioral healthcare every day to those who need it.
New in 2025 is NABH’s Silver Sponsorship, which offers exhibitors and sponsors an opportunity to interact with NABH members during our association’s committee meetings for 30 minutes.
You can view a list of our exhibitors and sponsors on our Annual Meeting homepage, and please make time to visit with them at the Annual Meeting from May 12-14 at the Salamander Washington, DC.
Manatt to Host Webinar on Medicaid Cuts on Children and Youth Next Week
Research firm Manatt will host an hourlong webinar next week that will examine the effects of Medicaid cuts on the nation’s children.
As Manatt reports, Medicaid covers two in five children and nearly half of all children with special healthcare needs. Despite the extensive research that shows that Medicaid coverage of children contributes to better health outcomes and improved long-term effects on health and educational attainment in adulthood, Congress is actively considering large reductions in Medicaid through the budget reconciliation process.
Federal proposals continue to evolve; these include: imposing caps on federal Medicaid funding, eliminating the enhanced federal funding states receive to cover expansion adults (which includes parents), mandating work reporting requirements as a condition of eligibility for parents and childless adults, reducing states’ ability to rely on provider taxes to pay a portion of their share of Medicaid costs, and restricting the ability for states to direct managed care plans to boost provider payments to strengthen access to care.
The webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, May 6 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. Click here to register.
Fact of the Week
The National Institutes of Health has funded six projects to develop, test, and validate outcome-focused quality measures for mental health to increase the accessibility and availability of evidence-based mental health treatments. Click here to learn about these projects.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.