HAP is working to:

• Expand the role of advanced practice professionals in the behavioral health care setting to improve access to needed services
• Address hospital challenges related to identifying treatment resources beyond the emergency department
• Advance the use of telehealth and insurer reimbursement for telehealth to increase access to behavioral health services
• Modernize policy to improve access to information to improve patient care
• Secure additional state and federal funds to initiate new behavioral health care models in the state 

The pandemic has exacerbated the existing crisis of inadequate post-acute placements and behavioral health services. To help address is crisis, HAP supports addressing behavioral health and post-acute capacity and barriers:

• Pennsylvania needs solutions to help patients receive the care they need after they leave the hospital. These solutions will vary from place to place; one-size-fits-all remedies rarely work

Telehealth

HAP supports regulatory changes to prevent insurers from prohibiting reimbursement for a service solely because it was provided via telemedicine.

HAP Opioid Learning Action Network

The HAP Opioid Learning Action Network (LAN), funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, was a two-year project that supported Pennsylvania’s hospitals in working collectively to identify, create, and disseminate promising practices to measurably increase the number of patients entering evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorders (OUD) and reduce overdose deaths.

For additional information about behavioral health, go to HAP’s Resource Center.