CEO Update 265
Access and Share NABH’s 2026 Annual Meeting Presentations & Photos!
Following last week’s 2026 Annual Meeting, NABH posted presentations from General Session speakers Eric Boles of The Game Changers and Kimberly Brandt from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Author and blogger Neil Pasricha’s presentation is not available to post publicly, and NABH’s other General Session speakers did not use slides during their presentations.
NABH is also pleased to share photos from this year’s Annual Meeting. If you choose to share a photo publicly, please be sure to credit our photographer Chris Ferenzi.
NABH Coordinates Site Visit for Rep. Jeff Crank in Colorado
NABH recently coordinated Rep. Jeff Crank’s (R-Colo.) visit to NABH system member UHS’ Cedar Springs Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colorado to tour the hospital, learn about the system’s Patriot Support Program (PSP), and discuss ongoing challenges in the TRICARE West Region that could affect the hospital’s ability to provide services to military personnel and their families.
Crank, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, previously facilitated a committee briefing with Defense Health Agency (DHA) leadership to discuss provider challenges with TRICARE TriWest and push for agency engagement.
Cedar Springs CEO Bob Kedelis led the tour and discussion around Cedar Springs services and the number of service members who receive treatment there. Crank, his wife Lisa Brown, and his staff spent an hour at the facility, and later discussed the challenges that UHS and other NABH members are managing with TRICARE TriWest, such as obtaining authorization for services, processing claims, receiving payment, and dealing with customer-service challenges. Rep. Crank pledged to continue working with committee colleagues and NABH to resolve these issues.
NABH staff welcomes the opportunity to work with NABH system members to facilitate site visits with their respective federal lawmakers and their staff to discuss priority issues and learn first-hand from practitioners about the challenges and successes that behavioral healthcare providers manage every day.
Please contact Andy Dodson at andrew@nabh.org to discuss your organization’s outreach efforts.
Congratulations to NABH Quality Committee Co-Chair Karen Johnson!
NABH is pleased and proud to share that Karen E. Johnson, senior vice president and chief clinical officer for the behavioral health division at Universal Health Services, Inc., has been recognized as one of the 10 Most Influential Women in Healthcare in the 2026 edition of Chief Women Leaders magazine.
Karen has spent more than 40 years dedicated to the behavioral health field in a career that has been defined by her passionate and tireless commitment to ensuring every individual who walks through a UHS facility receives compassionate, safe and high‑quality care.
Karen also has devoted decades of service to NABH, particularly in her involvement with the Quality Committee, where she serves presently as co-chair. In this role, Karen is helping NABH lead the behavioral healthcare sector in developing quality-outcome measures based on episodes of care.
Please help us congratulate Karen on both her recent achievement and on her many years of service and commitment to improving the health and well-being of others!
Register Today for Upcoming CMS Webinar on the IPFQR Program: Navigating the PIX Survey
CMS will host a webinar later this month to provide a general overview of the Psychiatric Inpatient Experience (PIX) Survey, data collection, and submission processes.
The webinar’s objectives include helping participants understand the background of the PIX survey and steps to collect PIX survey data; explain the PIX survey’s scoring methodology; describe how to submit PIX survey data successfully to CMS, and more.
CMS will host the webinar on Thursday, March 26 at 3 p.m. ET. Click here to register.
AHA Releases 2026 ‘Costs of Caring’ Report
Workforce pressures, higher input costs – particularly for drugs and supplies – and rising patient volume and acuity continue to drive broad-based, expense growth for hospitals, according to the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) recently released Costs of Caring report for 2026.
In 2025, inpatient volumes increased by 5.3%, meaning hospitals cared for more patients who are increasingly sicker, the report said. Meanwhile, benchmark data showed outpatient visits rose (up 9.8% year over year), reflecting both higher demand and the continued shift to outpatient and ambulatory settings.
The study also found that, in the aggregate, more than half (56.1%) of hospital costs are tied to service lines where reimbursements fall short, or is less than, the cost to deliver care, such as behavioral health, obstetrics, infectious disease, and burns and wounds.
The study’s conclusion noted “this mismatch between expenses and revenue leaves hospitals increasingly at risk of being able to maintain the full spectrum of services on which communities rely.”
Fact of the Week
Pew recently posted Drug Checking Equipment Can Lead to Healthier Decisions, Saving Lives to highlight tools that offer more information about unpredictable drug supply. The posting is part of Pew’s Substance Use Treatment Prevention Initiative.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.