ASAM Provides Comments to CMS on Proposed Actions to Improve Access to SUD Treatment

ASAM submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on proposed changes to enhance access to substance use disorder (SUD) and mental health treatment. In prepared comments, ASAM recommended revisions to proposed digital mental health treatment codes, adoption of payment/coverage of intensive outpatient (IOP) treatment in standalone settings, and welcomed a proposal to allow people on bail, parole, probation, home detention, or in halfway houses to qualify for Medicare coverage. ASAM also requested that CMS:

• Revise (to clarify that these codes also apply to overdose prevention), then finalize, code descriptors and payment for safety planning interventions;
• Finalize new codes and payment for post-discharge follow-up services for a crisis encounter;
• Finalize coding and payment for inter-professional consultation services so that certain clinicians (clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, and mental health counselors) can bill for their time consulting with other clinicians about a patient's treatment plan; and
• Implement several policies to improve maternal health outcomes in hospitals.

You can read ASAM's full comments here.