Physician Group Reaches New Value Based Payment Contracting Designation

New York Leads in Using Behavioral Health for Opioid Addiction

New York Sues OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma Over Opioids

As opioid overdoses continue to take the lives of tens of thousands of Americans every year, the epidemic has made many jurisdictions and public agencies that deal with health and safety reconsider long-held attitudes. Several cities are moving, for example, to establish safe-injection sites, something that would have been unthinkable to most local officials and policymakers just a few years ago. Medicaid programs have begun offering alternative methods of pain management, such as yoga and acupuncture, before prescribing opioids. And for police departments, an arrest-first mentality is beginning to give way to more compassionate approaches aimed at helping people struggling with addiction.

Two years ago, a handful of police departments began requiring officers -- frequently the first to encounter a victim -- to carry naloxone, the life-saving drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. There is still pushback from some departments that don't see helping addicts as their responsibility, but that view is dwindling. Read more here.

Likely, the connection between depression and opioid use is so obvious that no one acts upon it or even talks about it. Yet, the consequences frequently are quite deadly. The issue: The failure to link depression treatment with opioid treatment.

Major case in point: Of the 306 bills to address our national opioid crisis currently being crafted by members of Congress on the Hill, not a single one recognizes that treatment for depression is a critical preventive measure for opioid dependence and suicide, and a necessary concurrent treatment.

Why is this true? Nationally, for more than a half century, mental health care and substance use care have been separated. These fields have separate institutes-NIMH, NIDA and NIAAA-in the National Institutes of Health, and they have separate centers-CMHS, CSAP, and CSAT-in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Read more here.

Dead Reckoning: America's System of Coroners and Medical Examiners is Facing Unprecedented Challenges

New Advocacy Guide on Managed Care Contracting Available

The National Council for Behavioral Health has released the advocacy guide, Medicaid Managed Care Contracting, to provide community behavioral health providers and associations talking points and sample contract language related to each issue they may face to use with their state Medicaid agency to ensure Medicaid managed care will enhance behavioral health access. It also presents key challenges to help address common contracting issues.

Even though provider associations cannot engage directly in contract negotiations between states and managed care organizations, they are able to influence state policies and regulations. The guide's talking points can also be used to strengthen advocacy efforts with state agencies. Since each state's legislation and regulations may differ, it is recommended that state associations understand current laws and regulations that may already exist to address these challenges. 

Access the full guide here.

Improving Care for Dually Eligible Beneficiaries through Innovative Health Plan Partnerships

The nearly 12 million Americans who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid are among the nation's highest-need and highest-cost populations. Integrated health plans, which combine physical and behavioral health care and long-term services and supports, offer a promising opportunity to improve care for this vulnerable population as well as control costs. Between 2011 and 2018, the number of dually eligible individuals enrolled in integrated plans grew from approximately 162,000 to nearly 800,000.