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Mental and Behavioral Health

Securing wins for psychology

The Omnibus Appropriations Bill includes policy provisions and increased funding for federal programs that support and promote psychology.

Date created: January 10, 2023 4 min read
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American Psychological Association. (2023, January 10). Securing wins for psychology. https://www.apaservices.org/advocacy/news/securing-wins-psychology

Psychologist meeting with client

On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed into law the $1.7 trillion fiscal year (FY) 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. The bill includes several hard-fought wins for APA/APA Services, including significant increases to several federal programs supporting the practice, discipline, and field of psychology. These wins are a testament to the engagement and commitment of APA/APA Services’ members across the country who joined us in advocating for psychology in 2022. 

Here is a summary of some of the appropriations and substantive policy included in the bill:

Appropriations

Psychology Workforce Training

  • Graduate Psychology Education Program: $25 million in FY23, a $5-million increase over FY22 funding. The omnibus also reauthorized this program through FY27.
  • Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training: $153 million, a $50-million increase over FY22 funding. The omnibus also reauthorized this program through FY27.
  • Minority Fellowship Program: $19.4 million in FY23, an increase of $3.2 million over FY22 funding. The omnibus also reauthorizes the program at a $25 million level through FY27. 

Research

  • National Institutes of Health (NIH): $2.5 billion increase in FY23, maintaining the $10-million increase for the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research which APA/APA Services and the psychological science community advocated for in 2021. Among the expanded funding opportunities for the behavioral and social sciences are new initiatives in health communication, climate change, gun violence prevention research, and equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives.
  • Social Media: $15 million for the Department of Health and Human Services and NIH to study the impacts of social media on children and report to Congress within five years. 

Education

  • Increases in funding for school-based mental health and social and emotional learning.
  • Increases in funding for Title I, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Head Start, and childcare programs.
  • Increased investments in programs that help low-income and first-generation college students, including current and prospective graduate psychology students, finance their education.
  • Reauthorization of the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act Campus Suicide Prevention Grant, the only federal program specifically designed to address college campus mental health.

Suicide Prevention/Crisis Resources

  • $502 million to support the operation of the new 988 lifeline and $20 million to create behavioral health mobile crisis response teams.

Maternal Mental Health

  • $24 million in funding (a $19-million increase over FY22) for screening and treatment of maternal mental health conditions and substance use disorders.

Other policy provisions included in the Omnibus

Medicare and Medicaid

  • Mitigation of Medicare provider reimbursement rate cuts under the physician fee schedule by 2.5% in 2023, and 1.25% in 2024. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had scheduled a 4.5% reduction in the Medicare fee schedule conversion factor to take effect on January 1, 2023.
  • Extension of current Medicare coverage flexibilities concerning telehealth, including audio-only telehealth, and further delay of the in-person visit requirement for services delivered via telehealth through the end of 2024.
  • Authorization of a new grant program to improve uptake and patient access to evidence-based and evidence-informed models of integrated primary and behavioral health care.
  • Required state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (chip) coverage of behavioral health screenings, referrals, and case management services for juveniles in public institutions within 30 days of scheduled release.
  • Coverage of licensed marriage and family therapists and professional mental health counselors beginning in 2024.

Mental Health Parity

  • Inclusion of grants to states to bolster parity implementation.
  • Inclusion of a provision to end the opt out for non-federal government plans.

Veterans’ Mental Health

  • Passage of the APA Services-endorsed VA Infrastructure Powers Exceptional Research Act of 2021, allowing VA researchers to continue their long-standing practice of receiving compensation from private academic affiliations in addition to their federal salary. This provision averts potential disruption of existing mental health and other medical research and provides certainty for future research collaborations.
  • Passage of the Support the Resilience of our Nation’s Great Veterans Act, a measure endorsed by APA Services. This legislation strengthens VA’s mental health care workforce, bolsters the Veterans Crisis Line, and provides additional resources for transitioning service members.

Maternal Mental Health

  • Establishment the Maternal Mental Health Hotline to provide emotional support, information, brief intervention, and mental health and substance use disorder resources to pregnant and postpartum women and allocated $10 million each year in FY23–FY27.
  • Creation of a permanent option for states to provide 12 months of postpartum Medicaid and CHIP coverage through a simplified pathway. This critical policy, established under the American Rescue Plan Act, would have ended in 2027 if Congress had not acted.
  • Establishment of the Task Force on Maternal Health to improve coordination on the topic among federal agencies. 

APA Services will continue working closely with subject-matter experts across APA’s directorates, boards, divisions, and committees, to advocate for psychology on issues impacting society, and to continue advancing the impact of psychological science throughout the year. 

A more detailed list of federal funding programs can be found online (PDF, 977KB)opens in new window.

For more information, contact Katherine B. McGuire.