By: Helen Oscislawski, Esq.

Under the current Meaningful Use Rule, substance abuse, behavioral and mental health treatment professionals and facilities are not eligible, standing alone, to receive incentive payments for incorporating meaningful use (MU) of EHR technology into their practices and facilities. As a result, a community behavioral health organization (CBHO) would not be eligible for incentive payments even though it is providing the same or additional services that a hospital (eligible for MU facility incentive payments) might provide.  Likewise, while a psychiatrist, primary care physician or nurse practitioner affiliated with a CBHO could potentially receive incentive payments as "eligible professionals," the facility itself along with other health care providers, such as psychologists and clinical social workers providing services there, would not.

Although the availability of funding may have played a large part of this omission, the exclusion of substance abuse and behavioral and mental health from the EHR Incentive Programs is unfortunate, particularly because the populations served by these types of providers and facilities are in greatest need for the improved efficiency, quality, coordination and integration of health care that EHR technology facilitates.

Last week, however, legislation was introduced into the Senate with the aim of rectifying this oversight. The Behavioral Health Information Technology Act of 2011 ("BHITA"), S. 539, was sponsored by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and seeks to expand eligibility for Meaningful Use participation to substance abuse and behavioral and mental health providers and facilities. Previous efforts to amend HITECH have unfortunately failed when as a similar bill, the Health Information Technology Extension for Behavioral Health Services Act, H.R. 5040, died in the House last year.  However, the introduction of BHITA shows that policy makers continue to recognize the need to include these vital providers and facilities as part of Meaningful Use.

In sum, BHITA would:

• Extend Medicare and Medicaid eligible professional incentive payments to clinical psychologists and social workers
• Extend Medicare incentive payment eligibility to community mental health centers, private and public psychiatric hospitals, residential/outpatient mental health and substance abuse treatment facilities
• Clarify eligibility for community health centers, psychiatric hospitals, substance abuse and behavioral and mental health professionals, residential/outpatient mental health/substance abuse treatment facilities as Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers