Amid the COVID-19 emergency, all eyes have been on skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and hospitals — and for good reason. SNFs have accounted for more than 40% of the nation’s COVID-19 deaths, while hospitals have grappled with bed and personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages. As a result, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services […]
Category: Medicaid
Behavioral health providers only have a few days left to apply for money from the Provider Relief Fund, which could play an important role in keeping them afloat amid the coronavirus. The deadline is Friday, August 28. The Provider Relief Fund is a product of the CARES Act designed to help Medicare and Medicaid providers […]
Amid the COVID-19 emergency, behavioral health providers are struggling. They’re grappling with increased costs and decreased revenues, while also seeing more demand for their services. As a result, 71% of organizations have had to cancel, reschedule or turn away patients over the past three months, according to a recent survey by the National Council for […]
The National Council for Behavioral Health has launched a new Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Success Center, with the goal being to help more providers across the nation adopt the model. Based in Washington, D.C., the National Council is a behavioral health advocacy organization with more than 3,300 members across the country, most of […]
Spero Health — a privately held substance use disorder treatment (SUD) provider with dozens of locations across five states — has opened a new clinic in Martinsville, Virginia. The facility is the sixth new center Spero Health has announced since the COVID-19 emergency began in mid-March. It’s all part of the provider’s plan to offer […]
When the COVID-19 emergency hit the U.S. in March, behavioral health organizations quickly pivoted their operations out of necessity. Treatments that had traditionally been delivered in person were reimagined remotely in an effort to reduce the risk of virus transmission. Federal and state flexibilities made it possible, paving the way for the wider adoption of […]
The American Psychological Association (APA) is asking states and insurers to temporarily remove roadblocks that make it harder for mental health providers to offer telehealth services. Doing so is especially important in light of COVID-19, the APA says. “This is an extraordinary public health crisis with vast and unpredictable implications for the nation’s mental health,” […]
The Trump administration continues to loosen health care regulations in an attempt to better equip providers to deal with COVID-19. For the behavioral health industry, the newfound flexibilities make it much easier for providers to deliver comprehensive telehealth services. Due to the crisis, the government is looking past certain HIPAA rules, allowing providers to deliver […]
More than 80 Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) advocates convened on Capitol Hill Wednesday to urge Congress to extend and expand the CCBHC Medicaid demonstration program. Specifically, they’re asking lawmakers to support the Excellence in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Expansion Act (S. 824/H.R. 1767), which would expand the pilot by two years and […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a new final rule that will help behavioral health providers coordinate care by requiring hospitals to notify them when their patients have been admitted. The Interoperability and Patient Access rule applies to acute care, psychiatric and critical access hospitals that participate in Medicare and Medicaid. […]