| NAPHS
advocates for behavioral health and represents provider
systems that are committed to the delivery of responsive, accountable,
and clinically effective prevention, treatment and care for children,
adolescents, adults, and older adults with mental and substance
use disorders.
The NAPHS vision is of a society that
values and maximizes the potential of all its citizens by helping them to achieve overall
health. To achieve healthy communities, behavioral health will be recognized,
respected, and allocated resources with fairness and equity as part of overall health.
Association strategy and basic
assumptions:
Behavioral health associations must be united in advocacy goals to successfully
improve Americans' access to, coverage for, and outcomes in behavioral healthcare
treatment.
Leaders must create a climate in which competing
association efforts are coordianted, advocacy messages are strengthened, and services for
clients/consumers are improved.
NAPHS must remain flexible so that it can work toward this vision.
GOAL: To establish NAPHS as the national advocacy association
of choice for organizations providing behavioral health services. |
NAPHS Delivers Value The National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems brings a
wealth of expertise to the leaders of the nation’s behavioral healthcare
organizations.
The National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems
(NAPHS):
- Is focused on behavioral health advocacy
that gets
results
- Has been a leader since 1933
- Has members who are the top decision-makers
and most senior executives within their behavioral health systems
- Has a proven advocacy track record on
legislative and regulatory issues
- Commits dollars and resources to advocacy
- Brings top lobbyists to bear on behavioral
health issues.
- Invests in studies
and analyses needed to win advocacy issues (such as the
Moran Company study on ways to strengthen the inpatient psychiatric
prospective payment system and the cost implications of IMD/EMTALA
legislation)
- Gives priority to payment,
reimbursement, and clinical issues (e.g., The Joint Commission, CARF), including issues such as PSNs,
benefit design, parity, and payment rates for both inpatient and outpatient services
- Knows and has access
to the right contacts on Capitol Hill, in CMS, and in other
regulatory agencies
- Operates an effective political action
committee
- Is a respected industry spokesperson (for
example, NAPHS serves on Joint Commission PTACs, works with national media, tracks and collects data
for the Center for Mental Health Services, etc.)
- Has one of the most experienced staffs in
behavioral health care (with top managers each having more than 20 years experience in
behavioral health)
- Has demonstrated its commitment to changing
with the times through its outreach to and collaborations with all segments of the
continuum of care. NAPHS is making a concerted effort to include representation from all
provider organizations and has established good working relationships with the American
Managed Behavioral Healthcare Association.
- Has been a leader in facilitating effective
collaborations, such as the Coalition for Fairness in Mental Illness Coverage which is
fighting for parity, and joint ventures (including the merger between NAPHS and the
Association of Behavioral Group Practices, and the "Memorandum of Understanding"
between NAPHS and the American Hospital Association)
- Has a sophisticated data-collection process
through its annual survey, which is expanding to cover data on the full continuum
of care.
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