Providers caring for patients with behavioral health disorders face unique challenges in balancing safe public health measures and clinical protocols during the COVID-19 emergency, the AHA today said in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

Specifically, AHA requested guidance on how to apply general guidelines around COVID-19 for this vulnerable patient population, including specialized guidance for inpatient psychiatric facilities, and on providing additional services such as medication management and use of telehealth modalities.

It also urged the agency to ensure behavioral health services are appropriately reimbursed and behavioral health clinicians and professionals can receive emergency medical supplies and priority testing; relax staffing ratio requirements and certain restrictions on what tasks practitioners may perform; and preemptively plan for the likely surge of behavioral health patients that will follow the COVID-19 pandemic.

Related News Articles

Headline
Corey Feist, CEO and co-founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation, and Tiffany Lyttle, R.N., director of cultural integration at Centra Health, discuss…
Headline
The Food and Drug Administration has identified a Class I recall for Mo-Vis BVBA R-net Joysticks due to a firmware error that causes the wheelchair to ignore…
Blog
Public
Medical residency is one of the most demanding stages in a physician’s career. Long hours, intense learning and new responsibilities often push trainees to…
Headline
The AHA Sept. 15 expressed support for the Ensuring Access to Essential Providers Act, legislation that would require Medicare Advantage plans to cover…
Headline
A Gallup report published Sept. 9 found that nearly 48 million Americans currently have or are being treated for depression. The total, which equals 18.3% of…
Headline
Newsweek’s Access Health newsletter today features a conversation with AHA Chair Tina Freese Decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health in Michigan, where…