The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued final rules for the hospice payment rate, the Medicare inpatient psychiatric facility prospective payment system (IPF PPS), and related quality reporting programs for fiscal year (FY) 2026.
CMS will update the IPF PPS payment rate by 2.5%, based on the 2021 market basket increase...National Reports & Surveys
During COVID-19, rules constricting the use of telehealth were waived, opening doors for enrollees in Medicaid to receive behavioral health services through such technology. As a result, providers rapidly shifted their services to focus on telehealth availability, which may have unintended consequences for certain populations.
The...National News
A new study shows that accountable care organizations (ACOs) are falling short in delivering behavioral health care for Medicare beneficiaries with depression and anxiety disorders.
The study, published in Health Affairs, looked at data from the 2016-2019 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey and isolated validated depression and...Arizona News
House Bill 2691 sets up The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) and Northland Pioneer College to receive $9 million in funds collectively from the American Rescue Plan to combat Arizona's behavioral health workforce shortages.
According to The Arizona Behavioral Health Workforce (AZBH), 40% of Arizonans live in...CMS Rules
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) CY 2024 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) proposed rules released this week have caught major criticism from the industry for cuts to physician pay and inadequate raises for hospitals. But the OPPS proposal also contains a number of...
A crisis of mental health continues to grip the U.S. and Arizona, with a special focus on young people struggling with mental and behavioral health issues.
In Arizona, the patients with serious mental illness (SMI) at the Arizona State Hospital (ASH) may fall under the care of new management if a bill passes Arizona's legislature this...
As the nation grapples with a mental and behavioral health crisis, more Americans are using mental healthcare services covered by their insurers. New legislation seeks to facilitate that increase through requirements for Medicaid managed care organizations (MMOs) and Medicare Advantage (MA) plans.
New data from Blue Cross Blue Shield...
A new report demonstrates that states are having a challenging time implementing and enforcing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA); Arizona is high on the list of struggling states.
The report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation looked at the ways in which federal state regulators address both quantitative...News
Last week, America's Health Rankings, an analytic platform arm of the UnitedHealth Foundation, published its' annual Health of Women and Children Report, which focuses on health challenges experienced specifically by women and children.
The report found that mental and behavioral health concerns have risen sharply over the past...Arizona News
Integral Health Network of Southern Arizona is independently operated by CODAC Health, Recovery & Wellness, Community Bridges, Helping Ourselves Pursue Enrichment, Horizon Health and Wellness, and La Frontera Arizona.
Billed as an accountable care organization, the network launched last month and uses value-based care principles...National News
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), released a plan to tackle healthcare worker burnout and mental health at an event held by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) on Monday. The report is a response to the dire healthcare workforce shortage exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, National Plan for Health...White Papers, E books, Reports and more
Employer-sponsored insurance is the backbone of the American healthcare system. It pays for the majority of medical needs for employed adults and their families and has been lauded as a necessary negotiator for patients and providers, in order to deliver high-quality, patient-specific care. But according to a new study,...
The proposed rule is a biggie at over 2,000 pages and made news by cutting Medicare physicians' pay by decreasing the conversion factor to $33.08, a decrease of $1.53. The proposal provides telehealth extensions and broadens access to mental health and substance abuse care as well as dental services and colon cancer screening. CMS is...
After a long wait, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) announced that it has provisionally accepted 128 participants for the Participation Year 2023 cohort of the Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (ACO REACH) model. The ACO REACH model is the redesign of the Global and...White Papers, E books, Reports and more
Community health centers played a central role in coordinating care and economic support to disadvantaged communities during the pandemic, according to a report filed last Friday by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). The KFF Report noted that community health centers are experiencing substantial ramifications from the ongoing healthcare...Government
On Tuesday, March 15, President Joe Biden signed a $1.5 trillion spending bill that included a number of health-related provisions. This includes financial assistance for a biomedical research agency, an extension of Medicare telehealth waivers and funding to address concerns regarding maternal mortality.
Notably, House Speaker...National News
Despite the national decline in cases of COVID-19, President Joe Biden moved to reauthorize the U.S. national emergency declared in March 2020. The president said that the deaths of more than 900,000 Americans emphasized the need for the federal government's continued response to the pandemic.
According to Reuters, the emergency is...National News
As the national health care worker (HCW) shortage heightens, industry advocates and Congress are searching for solutions to the behavioral health crisis. From merging telehealth programs to increasing Medicaid reimbursement for youth behavioral health services, the field has an increasing number of complex issues that require...National News
The federal public health emergency (PHE) due to the COVID-19 pandemic is set to expire on January 16, 2022. Previously, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra extended the PHE during its prior three expirations under the Biden administration, but a lot of non-medical infrastructure for Medicaid...Arizona News
The collaboration between Benson Hospital Partners and Concert Health gives patients in Southeastern Arizona access to high-quality behavioral health support through primary care.
Benson Hospital, a critical access hospital that operates rural health clinics in Southern Arizona, announced a partnership with Concert Health, a...
