The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) hopes to see the flexibility state Medicaid programs have enacted in telehealth — especially within behavioral health — become permanent. Daniel Tsai, the deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS), a division of CMS, said that one of the silver linings […]
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the nation’s top health care regulator, will tackle three major initiatives within the behavioral health space in 2022 as the Biden administration enters its second year. The agency holds up increasing access, promoting equity, tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and enhancing the priorities of children and families […]
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for health care facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid but struck down the vax-or-test mandate for large employers. On Thursday, the high court handed down two rulings on lawsuits that challenged the Biden administration’s ability to drive a higher COVID vaccination rate in the U.S. […]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is looking into why Medicare Advantage plans have apparently struggled to add behavioral health providers to their networks. Last week, CMS announced that it issued a proposed rule that would change how insurers operate Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drug plans. But within the same proposed rule, CMS […]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services revealed new support for states to get behavioral health crisis intervention services to those experiencing mental health- or addiction-related crises in real-time. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which became law in March, grants CMS new authority to provide states with additional funding and tools to enhance […]
The chaos that the coronavirus pandemic inflicted on the behavioral health care industry gave way to a new normal in 2021 based on the many lessons learned in the previous year. And an apparent lesson learned by all is that the demand for behavioral health in the U.S. is immense. This apparently spurred on a […]
The number of telebehavioral health visits provided to Medicare beneficiaries increased by 32x — or by 3,090% — in 2020 compared to 2019. That’s according to a new report released by the U.S. Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). The report analyzed claims data from the […]
Recently announced changes to Medicare telebehavioral health coverage will impact the entire industry whether providers contract with the program or not. The move from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) marks an acceleration of telehealth on top of staking out a point-of-no-return for the industry’s progression toward digital adoption. CMS announced at the […]
The Biden administration on Thursday handed down a deadline for health care providers to get their workers vaccinated. This comes at a time in the behavioral health industry where many providers struggle to fully staff up their operations in the face of a massive health care staff shortage. Some industry insiders believe new federal rules […]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a final rule that it says promotes wider use of telehealth in the behavioral health industry. On Tuesday, the federal health care regulator announced its final rule on the Physician Fee Schedule for Medicare payments for the calendar year 2022. In it, CMS eliminates restrictions on where […]
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