Yesterday, the House voted to approve a 6-month extension of enhanced federal assistance for Medicaid. Hours later, President Obama signed the measure into law. 

 

The legislation, HR 1586, enacts a gradually phased-down extension of the enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) rates. The enhanced rates were originally set to end on Dec. 31, 2010, leaving many states with a shortage of resources to meet the elevated level of need for services during the recession. Under the new law, the increase in FMAP rates will be reduced from the current level of 6.2 percentage points to 3.2 percentage points from Jan.-Mar. 2011 and to 1.2 percentage points from Mar.-June 2011. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has compiled a chart detailing how much extra Medicaid assistance each state will receive as a result of the new law. 

 

The FMAP extension is expected to cost $16.1 billion and is fully offset by spending reductions in other programs. One of the concessions made was to pay for the bill in part by reducing the period by which food stamps are increased with federal stimulus dollars from 2018 to 2014. The Congressional Leadership hopes to use the intervening period to restore the food stamp enhancements before 2014. Click here to view the letter in support of the FMAP extension that the National Council and 18 other national mental health and human service organizations sent to the House on Monday.

 

The National Council once again extends our gratitude to our members who emailed, called, or met with their legislators about this important issue. Your strong and persistent efforts showed Congress the critical need for enacting the FMAP extension. Your advocacy has paid off! 

 

Please take a moment today to sign an e-card thanking Congress for approving this funding. Our legislators fought hard for this victory, and saying thank you can make all the difference! 

 

 

 

In late July, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its Draft Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2010-2015. The plan outlines the Department’s goals and strategies for improving the quality and efficiency healthcare in the United States and advancing the health and wellbeing of the nation’s population. The National Council has submitted comments in response to the Draft Strategic Plan. Our comments commend the Department for seeking public input on the plan and for its recognition of the importance of behavioral health in overall health. We also encourage HHS to consistently include mental health (MH) and substance use disorders (SUD) in each of the identified goals and strategies. Additionally, the National Council suggests that HHS should assertively monitor and enforce the new healthcare reform and parity laws to ensure that their provisions related to equity in coverage of MH/SUD benefits are fully implemented. You can see the full text of the National Council’s comments here. The public comment period will remain open until Aug. 14, 2010.

 

 

 

The Department of Health and Human Services has announced it is temporarily withdrawing its Breach Notification Final Rule in order to allow time for further consideration. The regulation sets forth standards for the notification of patients when a breach of their confidential information has occurred. The move by HHS to withdraw the regulation means that the release of the final rule will be delayed for several months. The Breach Notification Rule was developed in accordance with the HITECH Act, which was passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009. HHS issued an interim final rule (IFR) in August of 2009; the IFR has been in effect since Sept. 23, 2009. 

 

 

 

The National Council’s healthcare reform blog has all the latest news about reform implementation, along with resources to help you learn about the law and take advantage of its many provisions. New this week on MentalHealthcareReform.org: