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

HHS Announces New Rules Governing Electronic Health Records

Mar 10, 2020, 11:43 AM by MSDC Staff

HHS announced yesterday new rules designed to make patient data more available to patients and improve interoperability of systems.

On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced long-awaited final rules to improve the interoperability of electronic health records

The rules were announced yesterday but were overshadowed by questions around the growing COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S.

The two rules were issued by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and CMS. Among the changes addressed by the rules are:

Establishing a standard API to allow the creation of patient apps and making health records accessible via mobile device.
Further defining "reasonable and necessary activities that do not constitute information blocking" and establish new procedures to prevent "information blocking".
Requiring EHRs to provide certain data to be made available to the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) to better coordinate care plans and patient matching with demographic considerations included.
Establishing a new Condition of Participation (CoP) for all Medicaid and Medicare participating hospitals, requiring them to send electronic notifications to another health facility when a patient is discharged or admitted.

Physicians and facilities can find out more information on the ONC and CMS website.

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.