Telehealth, Licensure Portability Featured in New Disaster Preparedness Plan

A proposed national strategy for preparing for the next pandemic or disaster includes increased access to and coverage of telehealth and a provider licensure plan. Those ideas are contained in a study released this week by the Healthcare Leadership Council and the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. The 25-page National Dialogue for Healthcare Innovation culls lessons learned

Continue Reading

Portman, Whitehouse, Klobuchar Introduce CARA 2.0 to Increase Access to Treatment, Prevention and Bolster Fight Against Addiction Epidemic

December 10, 2020 | Press Releases WASHINGTON, DC — Today, U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) 2.0 to increase the funding authorization levels for the Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act (CARA) programs enacted in 2016 and put in place additional policy reforms to help combat the opioid epidemic

Continue Reading

APA President Jeffrey Geller, M.D., M.P.H. urges Congress to take action to curb the mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

APA President Jeffrey Geller, M.D., M.P.H., emphasized the ways telehealth has allowed Americans who might otherwise be cut off from mental health services during the pandemic to receive treatment. During a virtual hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health on June 30, APA President Jeffrey Geller, M.D., M.P.H., urged

Continue Reading

COVID-19 Pandemic May Shed Light on Better Treatments for Substance Use Disorder

Interventions like telemedicine and virtual support groups have exploded in response to social distancing. Now researchers can fully measure how well these interventions work. Research about how the COVID-19 pandemic affects people with substance use disorder (SUD) can inform strategies for providing treatment and social support in a post-pandemic world, said Nora Volkow, M.D., director

Continue Reading

APA Experts Urge Congress to Continue Relaxed Telehealth Regulations Post-Pandemic

During a virtual congressional briefing last month, APA President Jeffrey Geller, M.D., M.P.H., and members of APA’s Committee on Telepsychiatry emphasized the need for expanded access to mental health care through telehealth not only during the COVID-19 pandemic, but afterward as well. The briefing, titled “Collective Crisis: Preparing for America’s Next Wave of Mental Health

Continue Reading