Months after nixing a last-minute waiver issued by the outgoing Trump Administration to relax rules around treating opioid use disorder (OUD), the Biden Administration has announced new medication-assisted treatment (MAT) flexibilities of its own. The guidelines, which were issued Tuesday by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), automatically allow various clinicians to administer […]
The American Psychological Association (APA) is calling on Congress to enforce and improve the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), arguing that the legislation’s long-time shortcomings have become even more clear amid the pandemic. MHPAEA has been the law of the land since 2008. It mandates that employers offer mental health coverage that’s […]
A Hartford, Connecticut-based behavioral health care practice and its owners have agreed to a civil settlement with federal and state governments to settle allegations they improperly billed Medicaid. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday that Maurice Stuckey and Joyce Anderson, as well as their company Today’s Youth LLC, will pay $273,000 to resolve […]
More than 55% of adults with mental health issues went untreated in 2020, largely due to the supply-demand mismatch that exists in behavioral health. Integrating behavioral health care into medical settings presents an opportunity to change that — and benefit behavioral health providers — but not without policy changes. The problem is most primary care […]
When President Joe Biden was elected, behavioral health stakeholders were hopeful he would tackle some of the industry’s most pressing issues, chiefly among them being parity. Even though the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) requires insurers to make behavioral health coverage no more restrictive than medical coverage, payers frequently come […]
The Biden Administration has released its first-year drug policy priorities. The agenda, released Thursday, includes seven main areas on which the administration says it will focus during its first year in office. Those priorities include increasing access to evidence-based SUD treatment, particularly for buprenorphine medication-assisted treatment (MAT); better enforcing behavioral health parity; improving racial equity; […]
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced legislation to increase the amount of federal funding aimed at combating the nation’s opioid epidemic, which has worsened since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. On top of that, the new bill aims to make some COVID-19-era telehealth flexibilities permanent, among other changes. The legislation — the […]
As government enforcement action in behavioral health heats up, providers who work with commercial insurers may think they’re in the clear. But that’s not the case. Private payers can pose just as big of a threat and financial burden for behavioral health providers. And in fact, that risk is growing, according to lawyers who work […]
Telehealth has been vital in helping behavioral health providers navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Regulatory flexibilities and payer leniency are largely to thank for that, but it’s unclear which of those freedoms will remain in place post-pandemic. Behavioral stakeholders from some of the health care industry’s largest organizations believe that data and provider input should ultimately […]
Substance use disorder (SUD) treatment stakeholders are asking the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to make it easier for providers to use contingency management to help people overcome addiction. Contingency management uses positive reinforcement to motivate certain behaviors. In the case of SUD treatment, that […]
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