APA joined other members of the Mental Health Liaison Group (MHLG)–the leading coalition of national groups committed to strengthening Americans' access to mental and behavioral health care—in writing a letter to the Biden-Harris transition team (PDF, 256KB) on the important role that telehealth has played in the provision of mental health and substance use treatment services during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the important role it will continue to hold in the future.
The letter urgently calls for an immediate extension of existing Medicare emergency telehealth waivers through 2021, including for audio-only services and a broad range of tele-behavioral health services, to provide stability and certainty for practitioners and patients. The MHLG also called for telehealth to be covered at parity with in-person services.
APA drafted the letter with fellow MHLG tele-behavioral health workgroup co-leaders, Centerstone and the Jewish Federations of North America. APA will continue to prioritize tele-behavioral health advocacy with the new administration and the 117th Congress to remove regulatory and statutory barriers that prevent equitable access for all people.
For more information, contact Laurel Stine.