Well, it is obviously the key driver in terms of ability to provide the services necessary, because while there is a suspension now and people are using it, that is not going to continue unless the biggest payer of all, CMS, steps up and starts paying for it.
Kennedy emphasizes the importance of CMS reimbursement for telehealth services.
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More from Patrick J. Kennedy
We ought to be encouraging people in this country to seek mental health. That should not be a disqualifying factor.
We have so underfunded this system for so long, why is it a big surprise that we don't have enough providers in the field?
If this were any other issue we would move heaven and Earth to deal with it. In COVID we responded right away, everybody inoculation, everybody out there. The longest impact of COVID is going to be mental health, and yet, we don't treat it.
there are hundreds of thousands of my fellows in America who are dying because their medical system does not know they have an underlying addiction because it doesn't show in the EMR that they have been treated for addiction.