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CEO Update 243

NABH Welcomes Sarah Steverman, Ph.D., M.S.W. as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Quality, and Compliance

This week NABH welcomed Sarah M. Steverman, Ph.D., M.S.W. as the association’s new vice president of regulatory affairs, quality, and compliance.
 
Sarah comes to NABH from HHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), where she supported behavioral health policy research and coordination as a social science research analyst. Before joining ASPE, Sarah served as a social behavioral scientist administrator at the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Prevention Research Branch, where she focused on prevention research in healthcare settings and research on policies and environmental strategies to prevent substance misuse.
 
Prior to her work in government service, Sarah worked at Abt Associates, where she specialized in behavioral health policy, research, and dissemination of evidence-based interventions. She has also served as a public health analyst at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and led policy efforts at Mental Health America and the National Conference of State Legislatures.
 
Sarah began her career working in direct service with individuals with co-occurring substance use and mental health conditions. She earned both her master’s and doctoral degrees at Catholic University of America.
 
At NABH, Sarah is responsible for developing regulatory solutions and policy recommendations that support and promote quality behavioral healthcare services nationwide. She will monitor legislation and regulations that affect the behavioral healthcare industry and provide strategic direction about essential programs and initiatives in the federal regulatory environment and will focus on advancing the association’s public policy priorities. Sarah will also manage the association’s Quality Committee and Behavioral Health Services within General Healthcare Systems Committee.

CMS Releases 2022 T-MSIS Behavioral Health Data Book

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its 2022 Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) Behavioral Health (BH) Data Book and accompanying static tables pursuant to Section 202 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA), 2024 (CAA, 2024; P.L. 118-42).
 
The resource is a publicly available compendium of the number of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program beneficiaries with a substance use disorder (SUD) or a mental health (MH) condition and the services they received. The report catalogs the treatment of SUD and MH in the Medicaid and CHIP beneficiary population and services provided for the treatment of SUD and MH under Medicaid and CHIP. 

SAMHSA Announces $19 Million to Improve Housing Capacity for Homeless Persons with SMI

SAMHSA this week announced $19 million in supplemental funding through the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant to strengthen the nation’s housing capacity for homeless persons with serious mental illness (SMI).
 
“Addressing homelessness for people with serious mental illnesses requires improved coordination and partnerships nationwide,” SAMHSA Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Art Kleinschmidt, Ph.D., M.B.A., said in an announcement about the funding. “This investment will help build data-driven capacity at the state and local level and is critical to make our communities safer and healthier.”
 
According to SAMHSA, this supplemental funding provides an opportunity for states to align public health, housing, and justice systems in order to reduce homelessness and improve outcomes for individuals with SMI. The funding will help states build capacity and promote collaboration across systems, with a particular focus on addressing the intersection of homelessness and SMI.

NYC Health & Hospitals to Launch Contingency Management Pilot in 2026

NYC Health & Hospitals will launch a pilot Contingency Management (CM) program next year to patients who are treated for substance use disorder, Politico reported this week.
 
According to the story, the pilot will test CM at Lincoln, Elmhurst, and Bellevue Hospitals, where officials expect to reach hundreds of patients each year. The program is expected to expand citywide to serve about 1,000 patients annually, the story said.
 
Please remember to read and share NABH’s CM fact sheet.

Manatt to Host Webinar on Scaling Telehealth to Manage Healthcare Workforce Challenges

Research firm Manatt will host a webinar titled “Scaling Telehealth and Other Emerging Technologies to Mitigate the Health Care Workforce Crisis” next month.
 
The hourlong, interactive webinar will discuss developing a framework for considering how digital health can alleviate healthcare workforce challenges; how to adopt AI to enhance telehealth workflows; and why broader policy and industry changes are needed to attract, optimize, and retain healthcare professionals.
 
The webinar will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 10 starting at 2:30 p.m. ET. Click here to register and here to read a related white paper on the topic from Manatt and the Medical University of South Carolina.

Fact of the Week

Three major AI chatbots — ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini — generally respond appropriately to questions about suicide when those queries are especially benign or dangerous; however, there is still some fine-tuning needed, especially when it comes to questions that lay somewhere in the middle, according to a new RAND study.  For more information about this topic, please see this article from The Wall Street Journal and this story from The New York Times.

For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.