Sign Up for Public Health Weekly Newsletter
Alison Maffey, ASTHO’s Vice President of Social and Behavioral Health, explains the impact of President Biden’s proposed rule to make it easier to access in-network mental health care; Jeffrey Ekoma, ASTHO’s Senior Director of Government...
Alison Maffey, ASTHO’s Vice President of Social and Behavioral Health, explains the impact of President Biden’s proposed rule to make it easier to access in-network mental health care; Jeffrey Ekoma, ASTHO’s Senior Director of Government Affairs, walks through federal spending on public health ahead of Congressional August recess; ASTHO has a new virtual food safety inspection guide; and ASTHO has a blog article on the updated FDA Food Code.
ASTHO Webpage: Virtual Food Safety Inspection Guide
ASTHO Webpage: The Importance of the FDA Food Code
ROBERT JOHNSON:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Friday, July 28, 2023. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
ALISON MAFFEY:
The impact that this new rulemaking will have for people and families with mental health concerns will hopefully be to reduce barriers to access to treatment.
ROBERT JOHNSON:
The Biden administration this week announces a proposed rulemaking that would improve access to mental health and substance use benefits. This is ASTHO'S Ali Maffey.
ALISON MAFFEY:
The new strategy announced by the Biden administration this week actually looks back to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, and makes sure that health insurance providers are actually covering those mental health services with equity to regular health services; that there aren't additional barriers to access the care that many families need at this time.
ROBERT JOHNSON:
Maffey says the barriers can be tough to overcome.
ALISON MAFFEY:
Some people have been asked to get authorization repeatedly in order to access care, instead of being able to continue seeing their mental health provider. Sometimes it's that the coverage is insufficient. So financially, families have had to pay quite a bit of money for their mental health care. In other cases, it's that insurance reimbursement rates are not at the same level of other types of care, so making sure that there is sufficient reimbursement.
ROBERT JOHNSON:
The rulemaking process considers public input. Maffey says ASTHO will keep members updated so they can weigh in when the comment period opens.
ALISON MAFFEY:
Members can weigh in on this rulemaking process, once the rules are publicly available in the Federal Register. They will open be open for 60 days for public comment, and we'll make sure that we send out the rules once they're available so that members know that the time has begun.
ROBERT JOHNSON:
Maffey talks about approaches to mental health care and provides an update on a related framework. All of that is coming up next week here on the newscast.
Federal spending on public health had a hearing this week in the US Senate. ASTHO's Jeffrey Ekoma says the Senate version is better than the House bill we discussed last week. He gives us more in this latest 'View from Washington, D.C.' report.
Jeffrey Ekoma, always great to have you here on the Morning Edition. Welcome.
JEFFREY EKOMA:
Thank you. It's pleasure to be here.
ROBERT JOHNSON:
We like to talk a lot about what Congress is doing when you come on the show. And they've been spending a lot of time over the last several months on PAHPA; that is the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act. There's still more to update though. What's the latest?
JEFFREY EKOMA:
Absolutely, there has been a lot of activity in both bodies of Congress since the last time we spoke about this. The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced a couple of bills related to their reauthorization of PAHPA that we spoke about and the bill's advance on a partisan basis. Now, House Democrats released a separate bill that included their priorities related to reauthorizing PAHPA, and it includes authorization funding levels for preparedness programs, including the SNS, or the Strategic National Stockpile, as well as priorities on addressing drug shortages. Now, on the Senate side, the Health Committee advanced their bill, to authorize PAHPA out of committee to the Senate floor. I do want to note that both sets of bills in the House and in the Senate will require a significant amount of reconciliation, considering the differences that exist between them. And also as a reminder, the current authorization for PAHPA expires on September 30 of this year. So, there's still a lot of work to be done. And it's a lot of work that we'll be doing to see and track developments related to the bill.
ROBERT JOHNSON:
We can expect to hear a lot about PAHPA then between now and the end of September, it sounds like.
JEFFREY EKOMA:
Oh, lots lots more.
ROBERT JOHNSON:
Appropriations are also on everyone's mind. And in the Senate, there was a little bit of action on that front this week. Tell us about that.
JEFFREY EKOMA:
Yes, the Senate Appropriations Committee held a full committee markup this week. And as expected, the markup included funding levels that were greater than the levels that were in the house, which are grateful for. The bill also advanced out of the full committee. Now, we'll be doing a deep dive into the bill and really comparing the funding levels that are included in the bill as compared to those that advance out of the House Appropriations LHHS subcommittee. We're also sort of waiting to see if the House Appropriations Committee is going to actually debate the bill on the full committee floor. So, we are looking forward to that. And hopefully when that happens, report language will also follow that. So, we'll be able to dig deeper into exactly what Congress is looking to do, particularly on that on the House side pertaining to public health funding. So, much more toreport there as well.
ROBERT JOHNSON:
Now, all of this, of course, happening with August just around the corner, it starts next week. Isn't that normally the time when Congress leaves town? Are they going to have anything going on in August?
JEFFREY EKOMA:
It is a lot going on, and, my goodness, can you believe it's August already? So, of course, August is filled with recess in both the House and the Senate. Really what that allows us to do is to be able to continue to connect with staff on the Hill to re emphasize our priorities. We emphasize our strategic plan, and talk more about sort of what's needed in public health going forward. We'll also be tracking developments related to PAHPA, drug shortages, co-fund negotiations, as well as other critical asset priority so August is really a good time to connect with staff. What are they thinking about? Talking about what we're thinking about and get ready for the push that's going to happen in September, related to FY 24 appropriations.
ROBERT JOHNSON:
No vacation time for the ASTHO GR team.
JEFFREY EKOMA:
No sleep on our end, Robert.
ROBERT JOHNSON:
Jeffrey Ekoma, thank you so much for coming on the Morning Edition, giving us this update. We'll look forward to having you back for more news.
JEFFREY EKOMA:
Absolutely, talk soon.
ROBERT JOHNSON:
Also today, virtual food safety inspections helped agencies do their work with restaurants during the pandemic. Some jurisdictions continue to use them to cover more territory than is possible driving from one place to another.
ASTHO has a new infographic with a checklist for doing the work online. You can download it using the link in the show notes.
Finally, this morning, the FDA Food Code has been updated. You can get links to the updates and other resources in a new ASTHO blog article. Read the article using the link in the show notes.
And if you have a minute, please take the time to give us a review. It's as easy as clicking the button in your podcast player.
That'll do it for today's newscast. We're back Monday morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Robert Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great weekend.
