CEO Update 268
CMS Releases Fiscal Year 2027 Medicare Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule
On Thursday, April 2, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposal to update Medicare payment policies and rates for Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities (IPF) under the IPF Prospective Payment System (PPS) (CMS-1847-P) for fiscal year (FY) 2027.
The IPF PPS proposed rule includes updates to IPF payment rates for FY 2027 and the IPF Quality Reporting (IPFQR) Program. For FY 2027, CMS proposes to increase the IPF PPS per diem base rate by 2.3% to $912.58, up from $892.87 in FY 2026. CMS estimates payments to IPFs would increase by $50 million in FY 2027 compared to payments in FY 2026.
The IPF PPS proposed rule also includes the long-awaited details on the IPF patient assessment instrument (IPF-PAI). Additionally, CMS proposes to remove two measures beginning with the CY 2026 reporting period, the Alcohol Use Brief Intervention (SUB-2 and SUB-2a) and the Tobacco Use Treatment (TOB-3 and TOB-3a) measures.
CMS has posted a summary of the rule on their website. The rule will officially be published on Tuesday, April 7 in the federal register, with comments due June 1. We will provide detailed analysis shortly on the PPS and IPFQR portions of the proposed rule.
NABH Responds to CMS’ RFI About Preventing & Identifying Fraud in Medicaid & CHIP
NABH this week responded to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Request for Information about how to help states better prevent, identify, and address fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
“NABH member organizations are subjected to extensive licensing and reporting requirements. In fact, inpatient psychiatric facilities (IPFs) must meet more stringent Medicare conditions of participation than general hospitals, and many states require IPFs and other behavioral healthcare settings to undergo more stringent licensing and certification than other healthcare provider types,” NABH’s comments noted. “We urge CMS to review existing state licensing and certification requirements before adding new ones to avoid duplication and undue burden on behavioral healthcare organizations already held to high Medicare and Medicaid standards.
Our comments also noted that a lack of health information technology (IT) investment may have affected CMS’ understanding of the risk for fraud in the behavioral health field.
“Federal investment in certified EHRs for behavioral health providers would improve transparency and reduce unintentional billing errors, allowing CMS, payors, and behavioral health organizations to better account for service provision, costs, and outcomes,” NABH said in our response.
U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down Conversion Therapy Ban
In an 8-1 vote Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Colorado’s law banning conversion therapy for minors.
In Chiles v. Salazar, the High Court’s majority said Colorado’s law likely violates the First Amendment because it restricts what therapists are allowed to say.
Federal Lawmakers Introduce ‘Child Suicide Prevention Act’
U.S. Reps. Kim Schrier, M.D. (D-Wash.) and Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) together with Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) on Tuesday introduced the Child Suicide Prevention Act to address suicide among children and young adults by providing evidence-based training to current and future healthcare professionals.
Suicide is currently the second leading cause of death for young people ages 10-24, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that suicide rates among young Americans increased 52% between 2000 and 2021.
The legislation also would create a centralized database of resources where at-risk youth and their families, medical and nursing schools, and healthcare professionals can access for best practices in suicide prevention.
ICYMI: NABH Statement on Illicit Drug Policies to House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee
NABH last week submitted a statement to the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee for the panel’s hearing, Policies to Protect Our Communities from Illicit Drug Threats.
In our statement, NABH highlighted major concerns about H.R. 5629, the focus of the hearing, which we believe will have significant adverse effects for the more than 650,000 people receiving treatment from Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs).
“H.R. 5629 would nullify nearly all of a final rule that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) promulgated several years ago,” the statement said. “This rule corrected federal overregulation of delivering medical care for patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) and aligned federal standards with significant evolutions in OUD treatment since the first rule was promulgated in 2001,” it continued. “If signed into law, H.R. 5629 would bring back a federal government-imposed, one-size-fits-all approach to OTP care, restoring excessive and counterproductive regulation that unduly burdened patients and providers. And most importantly, it would be a massive step backward in our nation’s effort to combat America’s addiction and overdose crises.”
Read NABH’s full statement here.
Fact of the Week
Using medical or recreational marijuana to ease mental health conditions doesn’t work, according to a study published in the April 2026 edition of The LancetPsychiatry. “We found no evidence any form of cannabis is effective in treating anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, which are three of the leading reasons for which cannabis is prescribed,” said Jack Wilson, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Sydney’s Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.