"The Business" of Behavioral Healthcare | Behavioral Health Today

Universal American Acquires APS Healthcare

The following press release is yet another example in the flurry of merger and acquistion taking place in all segments of the health insurance and health care markets. APS (VRI at one time in its past) is one of a handful of managed behavioral healthcare organizations that have domintaed the market for nearly [...]

Opportunities to Innovate: CVS, MinuteClinic and HCA Announce Clinical Partnership in TN

MinuteClinic and TriStar Health Form Clinical Affiliation in Middle Tennessee

Agreement Includes Electronic Medical Record Integration and Clinical Collaboration to Increase Access to Care

Feb. 24, 2012 –

MinuteClinic, the retail health care are division of CVS Caremark, and HCA’s TriStar Health, the largest and most comprehensive health system in Middle Tennessee, have entered [...]

IOM Report on Living Well with Chronic Conditions Highlights Importance of Behavioral Health

The IOM released a new report that focuses with lazer precision on the bulk of the costs in our so-called cost curve: chronic conditions. The report exposes the importance of tackling multiple or comorbid chronic conditions and illustrates with tremendous clarity the crucial role of social/cultural factors, behavior and behavioral health, family and physical [...]

Behavioral Health Providers’ Red Flag: AMA asks (again) that HHS Pull the Plug on ICD-10 Implementation in 2013

Citing significant financial and administrative burdens, the AMA has asked Secretary Sebelius to postpone and streamline the 2013 mandated conversion to ICD-10. The AMA is clear that there are a wide range of health information technology initiatives and regulations they have to adopt and comply with right now and contends that converting from the [...]

32 Leading health care providers announced as Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 19, 2011 Contact: HHS Press Office (202) 690-6343 Affordable Care Act helps 32 health systems improve care for patients, saving up to $1.1 billion

Leading health care providers will be Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations

Thirty-two leading health care organizations from across the country will participate in a new Pioneer [...]

HHS to Give States More Flexibility to Implement Health Reform – Impact Felt Among Essential Health Benefits

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 16, 2011

Contact: HHS Press Office (202) 690-6343 Approach will help ensure consumers have quality, affordable coverage starting in 2014

The Department of Health and Human Services today released a bulletin outlining proposed policies that will give states more flexibility and freedom to implement the Affordable Care Act.

The Affordable [...]

GAO Finds Employers’ Insurance Coverage Enhanced by MHPAEA

GAO-12-63 November 30, 2011 Full Report PDF

The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) requires that employers who offer health insurance coverage for mental health conditions and substance use disorders (MH/SU) provide coverage that is no more restrictive than that offered for medical and surgical [...]

CMS Eases ICD-10 Deadline by 90 Days…many believe that may not be enough

CMS STATEMENT

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of E-Health Standards and Services Announces 90-Day Period of Enforcement Discretion for Compliance with New HIPAA Transaction Standards

Today the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of E-Health Standards and Services (OESS) announced that it would not initiate enforcement [...]

Supreme Court to Hear Health Care Reform in Spring

In what is very likely good news for the future of the Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court announced today that it will hear arguments and weigh in on the constitutionality of Health Care Reform. At issue is the mandate that individuals be insured and whether or not the Federal government can require such [...]

Medicare Covers Screening and Counseling for Alcohol Misuse and Screening for Depression

The new coverage policies add new preventive services for Medicare beneficiaries

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 14, 2011 Contact: CMS Media Relations Group (202) 690-6145

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced two new national coverage determinations that cover alcohol misuse screening and behavioral counseling for Medicare beneficiaries as well as screening for depression. [...]

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