Modern Healthcare (2/24, Hellmann, Subscription Publication) reports healthcare professionals, “patient advocates and key lawmakers are taking aim at health insurers as Congress drafts legislation to tackle the behavioral health crisis, arguing that low reimbursement rates and restrictions on coverage are limiting access to care.” Lawmakers “are looking to toughen enforcement of mental health parity laws and address a reimbursement paradigm that” healthcare professionals “say undervalues behavioral healthcare.” The article adds that healthcare professionals and health insurance companies “agree on one key problem: Increasingly fewer behavioral health professional accept private or public insurance, so their patients must pay out of pocket.” American Psychiatric Association CEO and medical director Dr. Saul Levin said, “I need to make sure that all of my psychiatrists come back into the system if they’ve opted out of it, and ensuring parity of payment is really important to that.”
Related Links:
— “Providers push for higher reimbursement as Congress debates mental health legislation “Jessie Hellmann, Modern Healthcare, February 24, 2022