Behavioral Health

anxiety for website 2.2020

Behavioral health is a major public health issue in the District of Columbia. Sadly, many of the legislative and regulatory initiatives around behavioral health are tied to other public health concerns, such as opioid addiction, maternal mortality, and health equity.

In partnership with the Washington Psychiatric Society, AMA, and American Psychiatric Association (APA), MSDC works to ensure that patients receive appropriate support for behavioral health issues, that the practice of psychiatry is supported in the District, and that psychiatrists are available to patients in the District.

MSDC was a proud supporter of the Behavioral Health Parity Act of 2017, which enshrined into law that all health plans offered by an insurance carrier meet federal requirements of the Wellstone/Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.

MSDC Statements and Testimony of Behavioral Health Issues

25th Council period information coming soon

 

We want your prior auth stories

Jun 30, 2022, 10:39 AM by MSDC staff
Send MSDC your prior auth stories to help us pass the prior authorization reform bill.

The #FixDCPriorAuth campaign continues.

As the summer heat sets into DC, it is more critical than ever to remind the Council, Bowser administration, and public that prior authorizations harm care and real reform can be passed this year. One of the most effective ways to do this is to make it clear that prior authorizations harm all kinds of patient care. Often people have one or two personal experiences with a prior auth, but they may not realize that it touches every part of medicine.

To help make clear how widespread prior auths are, send us your stories about how a prior authorization impacted you, your patient, or your practice.

We will keep you anonymous (or share your name if you want) but we will use these stories to show policymakers, the media, and the public how important of an issue this is. We will also include them on our Prior Auth Reform page.

Below are some examples we have already collected. Send your examples to hay@msdc.org:

My patient was denied access to a particular birth control pill she had been on successfully before, and my office was told she needed to try and fail on 5 different generic pills before she could be approved. - OB/GYN

I spent 90 minutes of time with the prior authorization department and an additional 30 minutes with the pharmacy and the patient all because they changed their formulary and would not "grandfather him in". - Psychiatrist

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Sample of Legislation MSDC is Tracking in Behavioral Health

(see the whole list of bills here)

Suicide Prevention Continuing Education Amendment Act of 2019 (B23-543)

What does it do? The bill requires licensed health providers to complete 2 hours of CME on suicide prevention, assessment, and screening.

MSDC position: MSDC opposes the bill as written as the language does not encourage physician wellbeing or sufficient awareness of suicide prevention.

Current status: The bill had a hearing with the Committee on Health on June 10.