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Medicare Part D

As we emerge from the COVID-19 public health emergency, it is increasingly clear that we must swiftly improve access to effective mental health and substance use disorder (collectively called behavioral health) treatment in order to meet the growing demand for such services. For older Americans and people with disabilities enrolled in Medicare, many individuals have felt the effects of worsening depression and anxiety or have struggled with the use of substances like opioids or alcohol.

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the annual update to the Drug Spending Dashboards with data for 2021.

Approximately 61 million Americans live in rural Tribal, and geographically isolated communities across the United States. These communities often experience significant health inequities. Compared to urban Americans, rural Americans are more likely to have heart disease, stroke, cancer, unintentional injuries, suicide risk, and chronic lung disease, and have higher death rates from COVID-19.

Note: This blog is an updated version from the July 7, 2022 blog. This updated blog reflects the new behavioral health policies in CMS’ finalized CY 2023 Physician Fee Schedule and Outpatient Prospective Payment System rules.

Note: CMS published a subsequent blog on November 1, 2022, that reflects the behavioral health policies in CMS’ finalized CY 2023 Physician Fee Schedule and Outpatient Prospective Payment System rules. Read the November 1, 2022 blog.

April marks the 10-year anniversary of the start of the agreement period for the first Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (Shared Savings Program) – an ambitious program to reward health care providers for improving health care for people with Medicare. The program now includes 483 ACOs with over 525,000 participating clinicians serving more than 11 million Medicare beneficiaries.