The agency aims to boost the number of national behavioral health providers by “creating an exception to supervision requirements, allowing marriage and family therapists, licensed professional counselors, addiction counselors, certified peer recovery specialists and others to provide behavioral health services while being under general supervision rather than direct supervision,” a spokesperson for CMS stated July 7.
Other key elements of the CMS plan include:
1. A supervision exception allowing behavioral health clinicians to provide services without a physician or nurse practitioner on site to expand behavioral healthcare resources in underserved communities.
2. Funding a team-based approach to treatment by paying psychiatrists and social workers to work with primary care providers to coordinate care and increase patient access to comprehensive chronic pain care.
3. A new Medicare Shared Savings Program, which streamlines care by using a coordinated group of physicians, hospitals and other healthcare providers to avoid unnecessary treatment.
4. Increased payments for opioid treatment programs.