The last few months have seen significant movement across a broad array of issues.
2024 Advocacy Successes and 2025 Outlook
Over the last year, APA has worked closely with Congress, the White House, and Federal agencies to ensure access to care for persons with mental illness. Before leaving for recess, congressional leaders proposed a healthcare package in addition to a resolution to keep the government open. This package included many of our legislative priorities, however, unfortunately, Congress did not bring it to the floor for a vote and instead passed a short-term continuing resolution to keep federal agencies operating with just a few other extensions. One of these extensions was the Medicare telehealth flexibilities that included delaying the 6-month in-person requirement until March 31.
Although Congress did not advance much healthcare legislation this year, APA has had some key regulatory advocacy successes including:
- Equal pay for telehealth and in person care: Care provided via telehealth will now be reimbursed by Medicare at the same rate as in-person care.
- Prescribing Controlled Substances via telehealth: The Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a third extension of COVID-19 telehealth flexibilities for the prescribing of controlled substances, to be effective through December 31, 2025.
- Supervision via telehealth: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services extended for another year the ability for residency training programs to supervise residents virtually when all parties are virtual.
- Removal of Barriers to Clozapine: The re-evaluation of the Clozapine REMS program, concluding in a vote of the FDA’s advisory committees, to effectively remove barriers to access the highly effective medication.
- Closing MHPAEA Loopholes:  The Department of Labor released its final rule, strengthening enforcement of the 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act by requiring insurers to provide data illustrating that their beneficiaries have access to mental health services.
APA’s advocacy is stronger than ever and our commitment to advancing policy to improve access to mental health and substance use disorders remains. Moving into 2025, we will work with the new Trump Administration and the 119th Congress to advance psychiatry and treatment for your patients. We have seen a flurry of executive orders coming from the Trump Administration. APA is carefully assessing and tracking each of the orders and other announcements as they arise. There are and will be challenges to some of these orders and it will take time for these to play out in the courts, in the agencies, and in Congress. We will have an opportunity to engage on our issues in the public and behind the scenes. We will use our voice strategically. Where necessary, we will align with coalition partners in mental health and medicine as our voices are stronger together. We recently joined our primary care colleagues in a statement regarding the executive order to withdraw from the World Health Organization.
Mental health is a nonpartisan issue. We will stand firm on our policy, however we can’t do it alone. We need your engagement and help now more than ever. If you have not signed up to receive advocacy alerts, we encourage you to sign up and also participate in our 2025 Advocacy Action Challenge.
APA-Led Activities
Advocacy Update Webinar
On Monday, February 10 from 12:30 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. ET, join us for our inaugural Advocacy Update webinar of the year, where APA's Division of Advocacy, Policy, and Practice Advancement will provide a review of our 2024 advocacy successes and an outlook for 2025. Click here to register.
Advocacy Action Challenge
APA members are invited to take part in the 2025 Advocacy Action Challenge! This exciting competition gives you the chance to push APA's advocacy efforts to new heights while entering a friendly competition against your colleagues. Every advocacy action you take will earn you points, helping you climb the quarterly leaderboard and showing your commitment to advancing psychiatry on both the federal and state levels. The challenge runs until October 31, 2025. In November top advocates from each area will be highlighted and the three highest-scoring members will win sponsored attendance to the 2026 State Advocacy Conference. Don't miss your chance to take the challenge and make a difference for your profession! Visit psychiatry.org/advocacychallenge to get started.
APPA Listening on DEA Proposed Rule
APA’s division of Advocacy, Policy, and Practice Advancement is holding a listening session on the DEA’s proposed rule on Special Registration for Telemedicine and Limited State Telemedicine Registrations. Join us on February 18th at noon ET to provide feedback to provisions of the proposed rule and how it may impact your practice. Click here to register.
2025 Billing and Documentation Update for Psychiatrists
On February 19th, the division of Advocacy, Policy and Practice Advancement will host a webinar on 2025 Billing and Documentation Update for Psychiatrists. The webinar will highlight new and revised billing codes, review how to select the most appropriate code and explore key documentation considerations to help participants craft notes that serve multiple purposes: supporting billing requirements based on telehealth policies for 2025, enhancing patient care, and effectively communicating critical information to third-party readers. Click here to register.
Executive Branch Activities
APA Letter to the Trump Administration
APA wrote to the Trump Administration sharing our priority issues and encouraging them to focus on improving access to care for people living with mental health and substance use issues.
APA and Allied Primary Care Organizations Respond to Trump Administration Executive Orders
APA joined with our allied primary care organizations in two public statements. First calling on Congress to reject the withdrawal from the WHO and also asking them to ensure that the CDC, NIH and other public health agencies have the resources and ability to provide physicians and the public with the information they need to support the health and mental health of all Americans.
APA Supports CMS Proposals to Enhance the Medicare Advantage Program and the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program
APA sent a letter to CMS supporting and making recommendations to proposals intended to improve the Medicare Advantage program and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug program.
APA Successfully Advocates for the Expansion of Buprenorphine Treatment Via Telemedicine
In March of 2023, APA sent a letter to the DEA advocating for extensive changes to a proposed rule to expand access to Buprenorphine via telemedicine. In January 2025, the DEA finalized the rule authorizing a DEA-registered practitioner to prescribe Buprenorphine (or any FDA approved schedule III-V controlled substances for the treatment of OUD) via audio-visual or audio-only telemedicine encounter without requiring an in-person medical evaluation for an initial six month supply of the medication. Following the initial 6 months, an in-person evaluation or an evaluation by other forms of telemedicine permitted by the Controlled Substance Act. The prescribing practitioner must review the PDMP for the state in which the patient is located at the time of the encounter and the pharmacists filling the prescription must verify the patient’s identity. The new regulatory framework will go into effect on February 18, 2025.
APA Joins Sign On Letter for Revamping MVPS
APA joined 32 organizations in a sign on [letter] urging Congress to reconsider the way the MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs) have been designed for MIPS reporting. There are major flaws in the current system and the existing MVPs do not help align cost with quality.
Congressional Activities
APA engagement at the end of last year’s congressional session:
APA Supports Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act Reauthorization
APA supported efforts advocating for reauthorization of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act. Originally enacted in 2022, the bill was the first and only federal law dedicated to preventing suicide and reducing occupational burnout, mental health conditions, and stress for health care professionals. The bill takes an important step in reducing the stigma and challenges – such as fear of license or credential loss – that often prevent healthcare professionals from seeking care. Reauthorization would help ensure that initiatives funded by the bill can continue and expand on successes. APA joined efforts for the bill to be included in a year-end package and has endorsed the latest reauthorization bill introduced by Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Todd Young (R-IN), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Roger Marshall (R-KS) this month.
APA Endorses the Parity Enforcement Act
At the end of last Congress, APA endorsed the Parity Enforcement Act of 2024, which would authorize the Department of Labor to assess civil monetary penalties for violations of mental health parity requirements. This bill would incentivize compliance and strengthen the protections of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. “Every American should have the ability to access high-quality and effective mental health and substance use disorder care,” said Marketa M. Wills, M.D., M.B.A., CEO and Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). “APA applauds Senator Murphy’s work to ensure access to care by empowering the Department of Labor to enforce mental health parity law and impose civil monetary penalties on health plans and insurers in violation.”
Congress Passes APA-Supported Maternal Mental Health Program through National Defense Bill
The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed in December included critical funding for a new initiative to address the perinatal mental health of active-duty service members and spouses. The NDAA legislative language – based on the bipartisan Maintaining our Obligation to Moms who Serve Act introduced by Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA-6) and Don Bacon (R-NE-2) in the House and Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Deb Fischer (R-NE) in the Senate – establishes a standing program in the military health care system that will provide resources to prevent and treat maternal mental health conditions and raise awareness among service members and their families. Approximately 100,000 military mothers (both active duty and spouses) give birth each year, and one in three are impacted by maternal mental health conditions - twice the rate seen in the civilian population.
APA Welcomes 119th Congress
On January 3, 2025, the 119th Congress was sworn in. APA wrote to all members, urging them to consider APA’s priority issues over the next two years including: access to telehealth services, incentives for Collaborative Care Model implementation, bolstering the behavioral health workforce, and funding for maternal mental health programs. Read the full letter to the new Congress here.
APA Urges Congress to Protect Medicaid
In response to recent policy proposals to cut funding to Medicaid, APA joined a coalition of mental health advocacy organizations urging Congress to protect Medicaid. Individuals with mental health (MH) conditions and substance use disorders (SUD) make up 40% of nonelderly adults on Medicaid and would be disproportionately affected by any cuts to Medicaid funding or benefits, or the imposition of work requirements. Without access to quality, affordable care, the nearly 80 million Americans who rely on Medicaid, could be forced to forego MH or SUD treatment and risk their conditions worsening. Read the full letter to Congress here.
APA Opposes H.R. 21/S. 6, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
APA joined 19 medical organizations in opposition to H.R. 21/S. 6, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. The bill, which would impose criminal and civil penalties on some clinicians who perform abortions, would severely impact the provision of care for those who work with high-risk patients, decrease access to care, and impose a dangerous government intrusion into the patient-provider relationship. The bill passed the House 217-204 but failed in the Senate. Read the full letter urging lawmakers to oppose the bill here.
State Advocacy Activities
APA Partners With District Branches to Advocate to Protect Patient Safety
APA works in close partnership with APA district branches and state associations (DB/SAs) throughout the country to oppose legislation that would expand scope of practice for non-physician providers without the necessary education and training.
As of late January, proposals to allow for psychologist prescribing had been filed in four states, in addition to a bill to expand scope in New Mexico. Legislation to allow for APRN or PA independent practice have been filed in several other states.
The APA and DB/SAs continue to advocate for evidence-based alternatives to safely increase access to care, including the Collaborative Care Model, telemedicine, increasing the number of psychiatric residency slots, loan forgiveness, mental health parity, network adequacy, and more.
For more information on APA advocacy-related resources, such as talking points and calls to action, please contact [email protected].
APA Collaborative Care Model Safely Increases Access to Care
APA continues to collaborate with several district branches and state associations to pursue APA model legislation requiring commercial insurers and/or Medicaid to reimburse for the Collaborative Care Model codes. As of January, 2025, a total of 13 states have enacted APA model legislation. In addition, Medicaid voluntarily reimburses for the codes in approximately 30 states. So far this session, Collaborative Care Model bills have been filed in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Minnesota, with more expected. For more information, visit Psychiatry.org - Model CoCM Legislation, or contact [email protected].
APA Collaborates with District Branches on Psychedelic Legislation
APA is working with District Branches and State Associations on psychedelic legislation to protect patient safety and advocate for FDA approved treatments. At least 6 bills related to psilocybin have already been filed in states this year and we expect many more to be filed in the coming weeks. APA supports continued research and therapeutic discovery into psychedelic agents with the same scientific integrity and regulatory standards applied to other promising therapies in medicine.