SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — The American Psychiatric Association (APA) commends the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for reconsidering their initial proposal and for protecting a patient's access to lifesaving medication under Medicare Advantage and the Part D protected classes. We thank the members of Congress and partners who advocated to retain these vital patient protections.

Patients with mental illness need access to a wide range of psychiatric medications. Individual drugs within the therapeutic classes used to treat individuals with mental illness have very different clinical indications, mechanisms of action, and side effect profiles and are not clinically interchangeable.

"With adherence to medications already a challenge, this proposal would have added additional utilization management burden which contributes to burnout for clinicians, as well as confusion for patients trying to navigate an already complex system." Said APA President Altha Stewart, M.D.. "This rule protects patients by ensuring they receive lifesaving medications through the protected classes."

"With emergency room boarding of patients with serious mental illness becoming a crisis for many hospitals. The need for patients to have access to the medications without administrative barriers is crucial." said APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A.

To review APA's comments click here.

American Psychiatric Association

The American Psychiatric Association, founded in 1844, is the oldest medical association in the country. The APA is also the largest psychiatric association in the world with more than 38,500 physician members specializing in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and research of mental illnesses. APA's vision is to ensure access to quality psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. For more information please visit www.psychiatry.org.