AHA requests assistance, guidance for behavioral health providers

Apr 09, 2020 - 04:34 PM

Providers caring for patients with behavioral health disorders face unique challenges in balancing safe public health measures and clinical protocols during the COVID-19 emergency, the AHA today said in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

Specifically, AHA requested guidance on how to apply general guidelines around COVID-19 for this vulnerable patient population, including specialized guidance for inpatient psychiatric facilities, and on providing additional services such as medication management and use of telehealth modalities.

It also urged the agency to ensure behavioral health services are appropriately reimbursed and behavioral health clinicians and professionals can receive emergency medical supplies and priority testing; relax staffing ratio requirements and certain restrictions on what tasks practitioners may perform; and preemptively plan for the likely surge of behavioral health patients that will follow the COVID-19 pandemic.

Related News Articles

Perspective
Working Together to Advance Health and Build a Better Future
Stand up. Speak out. Be heard. The stakes for the future of health care are too high to do anything less. That was a key message for the approximately 1,…
Headline
Study: Disparities in access to in-network behavioral health care pervasive
Patients went out-of-network 3.5 times more often to see a behavioral health clinician than a medical/surgical clinician in 2021, and up to 20 times more often…
Headline
Health care leaders discuss ways to effectively engage legislators
It's always important to bring the issue back to the patient, said Sarah Lechner, senior vice president and chief of external affairs for Hackensack Meridian…
Headline
Reps. Wenstrup, Bucshon and Kildee talk current state of Congress, look back on congressional careers
Three retiring members of Congress — Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, Larry Bucshon, R-Ind., and Dan Kildee, D-Mich. — engaged in a genial conversation that covered the…
Headline
Senator Thune touts support for telehealth, urges solution-oriented advocacy 
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., April 16 updated AHA members on progress to extend telehealth waivers, offering hope that a solution will arise in end-of-year…
Headline
Senator Durbin: Hospitals’ stories needed to drive meaningful change
As hospital leaders prepared to meet with their lawmakers on April 16 following the conclusion of the AHA's 2024 Annual Membership Meeting, Sen. Dick Durbin, D…