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DGR Telephone:
703-907-7800 | |
Follow APA Advocacy on Twitter!
The APA Department of Government Relations is now on Twitter! Now you can find out about APA Advocacy activities, Congressional hearings, mark-ups, and floor votes in real time.
Please click on the following link to start following APA Advocacy Twitter:
http://twitter.com/apa_
advocacy
Questions about the Twitter page or how to set up an account? Please contact Kate McAllister at advocacy@psych.org. |
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APA Files Comments on Interim Final Rule Implementing Mental Health Parity Law
On May 3, DGR submitted APA's comments on the Interim Final Rule implementing the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA). Overall, APA was very pleased with the rules and believes that they contain a number of positive changes for patients and psychiatrists. APA expressed particular support for a requirement that plans to maintain a single combined deductible and a clarification that the law restricts the ability of insurers to use non-quantitative treatment limitations such as prior authorization and Step therapy to improperly limit treatment. The APA also urged the Departments to issue rules which would cover Medicaid managed care plans and to clarify several aspects of the rules to ensure uniform compliance. DGR will continue to be in close contact with the Departments on the implementation and enforcement of MHPAEA and looks forward to the government finalizing the rules swiftly.
Press Release:
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National Institutes of Health Director Appears Before Appropriators
The National Institutes of Health will face a "crunch" in FY 2011 when a two-year allotment of $10.4 billion in stimulus funding for research runs out, NIH Director Francis Collins told House appropriators April 28 at a hearing on the agency's budget. In the hearing, House appropriators spent two hours exploring topics as varied as pancreatic cancer, children's health and the success rate in completing cancer trials. But the ever-present scramble for money was a continuing theme. During the last 30 years or so, NIH grant applicants had a 25 to 30 percent chance of success at obtaining funding, but more recently that has dropped to 20 percent according to Dr. Collins. In FY 2011, Dr. Collins predicted just 15 percent of grants would be funded as the spigot of money provided through the economic stimulus law (PL 111-5) shuts off. This fiscal year, NIH has a $31 billion budget, not including about $5 billion allocated through the stimulus package. In his FY 2011 budget proposal, President Obama has called for an increase of $1 billion, for a total of $32 billion for NIH.That is an increase of about 3.2 percent - which matches the inflationary index for biomedical research, Dr. Collins noted. Also of note, NIH was exempted from the Senate's proposed freeze on discretionary spending. |
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House Justice Commission Bill
The long-awaited House companion bill to the Senate's National Criminal Justice Commission bill S. 714, has been introduced. H.R. 5143 was introduced by Representative Bill Delahunt (D-MA) and is cosponsored by Representatives Marcia Fudge (D-OH), Laura Richardson (D-CA), Bobby Scott (D-VA), Darrel Issa (R-CA), and Thomas Rooney (R-FL). H.R. 5143 is pending before the House Judiciary Committee and S.714 has been placed on the Senate's General Orders calendar meaning the bill may be called to the Senate floor for a vote at any time. |
| Recent Experiences with TRICARE?
The General Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, is researching TRICARE quality for Congress. Please contact Lizbet Boroughs, Deputy Director, APA Department of Government Relations at lboroughs@psych.org to share your experiences with TRICARE. |
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Kennedy, Murphy Introduce Mental Health Electronic Health Records Funding Legislation
While the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) contained Medicare and Medicaid incentives for individual psychiatrists and most hospitals to adopt electronic medical records (EMR), it left out numerous facilities in which psychiatrists practice that are critically important for patient care delivery. H.R.5040, the Health Information Technology Extension for Behavioral Health Services Act, was introduced last week by Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Tim Murphy (R-PA) and would correct this by extending ARRA EMR incentives to facilities like public and private psychiatric hospitals, community mental health centers, and other excluded groups.
To read the APA's letter of support, please click here. |
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