Federal News & Issues

APA Urges House to Reject American Health Care Act (AHCA)

ARLINGTON, Va. March 22, 2017 — On the eve of a planned House vote on the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the American Psychiatric Association (APA) sent a letter to Congressional leaders voicing its opposition to the bill. In addition, the APA issued the following statement:

“The AHCA will remove insurance coverage from millions of Americans who will not be able to access treatment otherwise,” said APA President Maria A. Oquendo, M.D., Ph.D. “Furthermore, the bill will roll back Medicaid expansion that occurred...

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Author: mbourdase - Published: Mar 23, 2017

APA Reaffirms Support for Goldwater Rule

ARLINGTON, Va. March 16, 2017 — The American Psychiatric Association (APA) today reaffirmed its support behind the ethics guideline commonly known as “The Goldwater Rule,” which asserts that member psychiatrists should not give professional opinions about the mental state of someone they have not personally evaluated.

The APA’s Ethics Committee issued an opinion that clarifies the ethical principle and answers questions that have been posed recently.

Since...

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Author: mbourdase - Published: Mar 16, 2017

APA Concerned About Proposed ACA Replacement Bill

ARLINGTON, Va. — The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is deeply concerned that the proposed ACA replacement released last night will negatively impact care for people with mental illness and substance use disorders. The APA urges continued support and expanded access to quality, evidence-based mental health and substance use services.

Mental illness is prevalent in the United States. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, more than 68 million Americans experienced a psychiatric or substance use disorder in the past year. Depression alone has an annual negative economic impact of $210.5 billion.

It is unknown how many people will lose coverage under this proposal, but discussions on implementing significant reforms to the current Affordable Care Act and Medicaid raise the possibility...

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Author: mbourdase - Published: Mar 10, 2017

National Network of Depression Centers to Collaborate on PsychPRO, APA’s Mental Health Registry

ARLINGTON, Va. — Today, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) announced that the National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC) — non-profit consortium of more than 600 faculty members from leading U.S. academic medical centers — will collaborate with the APA on PsychPRO, the APA’s national mental health registry.

The APA announced last fall the launch of PsychPRO (Psychiatric Patient Registry Online), a registry that will help psychiatrists deliver high quality care and meet new MACRA quality reporting requirements by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, (CMS). PsychPRO will spur future research and develop better ways to treat and prevent psychiatric illnesses.

“This is an exciting time for the NNDC to join the American Psychiatric Association in this clinical quality improvement initiative...

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Author: mbourdase - Published: Feb 28, 2017

Depression Screening Rates in Primary Care Remain Low

ARLINGTON, Va. – Despite federal recommendations for depression screening, a new national study found that less than 5 percent of adults were screened for depression in primary care settings. The low screening rate suggests missed opportunities to identify individuals with depression and link them to care, according to study authors. The research was published online today in Psychiatric Services in Advance.

An estimated 13 to 16 percent of adults will experience symptoms of depression in their lifetime, and an estimated 4 to 8 percent experience major depression in a given year. Yet In primary care settings, depression goes unrecognized about half the time. Diagnosis and treatment rates are particularly low among certain groups, including older adults, males and African Americans. Depression screening has been...

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Author: mbourdase - Published: Feb 15, 2017

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