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CEO Update 251

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Launches New Collection of Resources

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) recently launched The Upright, a collection of research, program, and policy resources that aim to advance health equity in suicide prevention. The resources are meant to support localities, organizations, and individuals wishing to develop suicide prevention strategies in underserved communities.
 
As part of the launch, AFSP will host The Summit, three virtual events featuring local and national experts who have supported suicide-prevention strategy implementation. The events will highlight community-based programs that have shown measurable impact on suicide outcomes.

AFSP will host the first of the three events on Tuesday, Oct. 28, from 2– 4:15 p.m. ET. The event will feature suicide prevention experts with experience embedding health equity into suicide-prevention efforts.

CMS Instructs Medicare Administrative Contractors to Lift Claims Holds

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Oct. 21 provided updated guidance that instructs all Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) to lift the claims hold CMS announced at the start of the government shutdown and process claims with dates of service of Oct. 1, 2025, including claims paid under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, ground ambulance transport claims, Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) claims, and telehealth mental health services claims.
 
Specifically, the new guidance instructs MACs to lift the claims hold for “telehealth claims that CMS can confirm are definitively for behavioral and mental health services.” CMS directed MACs to continue to hold claims for other non-behavioral health telehealth services and for acute Hospital Care at Home claims.

This latest guidance follows the agency’s Oct. 15 guidance on new in-person visit requirements, which requires all new Medicare patients receiving mental health treatment via telehealth to have received an in-person visit within the past six months and every 12 months after the initial telehealth visit. As reported in last week’s edition of CEO Update, CMS clarified that established telehealth patients do not need to have had an in-person visit within six months and only must receive an in-person visit in the next 12 months to continue mental health treatment via telehealth.

NABH ‘Unit’ Committee Members: Register Today for NABH’s 2025 Fall Leadership Forum!

To all NABH members who serve on the Behavioral Health Services within General Healthcare Systems Committee (Unit Committee): join your fellow members for the 2025 NABH Fall Leadership Forum in Tampa, Fla. on Thursday, Nov. 6 through Friday, Nov. 7.
 
NABH thanks our member BayCare Behavioral Health for hosting this two-day meeting, which is designed to provide Unit Committee members with exclusive access to discussions with experts in the field and valuable opportunities for peer-to-peer engagement.
 
Please contact NABH Operations Coordinator Meghan Barrett at meghan@nabh.org for additional details and meeting agenda.

Please Submit Updates for the NABH’s Online Membership Directory

NABH asks all members to submit any changes to their organization’s profiles for the association’s Membership Directory, which we publish online only.
 
Your system’s information is the critical data we need to provide a more accurate description of our members to policymakers, regulators, and the media in our advocacy efforts.
 
To help ensure we have the most accurate member information, please use the link to our membership update tool that was sent in September to all system members and verify your system’s information. Please be sure to enter information on all of your system’s facilities so that we have a better picture of our diverse membership.
 
Please contact Maria Merlie at maria@nabh.org or 202-393-6700, ext. 104 for assistance or if you require the membership update tool link to be resent.
 
Thank you for your time and all you do to advance NABH’s Vision and Mission!

Fact of the Week

A new ballot initiative in California – the California Kids AI Safety Act – would restrict kids’ access to AI chatbots without safety guardrails, establish statutory damages for AI harms, and limit the sale of minors’ data and require third-party audits of AI tools, Politico reported this week.
 
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.