Addressing & Improving Behavioral Health

Behavioral Health Strategy Goals

• Strengthen equity and quality in behavioral health care
• Improve access to substance use disorders prevention, treatment and recovery services
• Ensure effective pain treatment and management
• Improve access to and quality of mental health care and services
• Utilize data to inform effective actions and measure impact on behavioral health

Resources

• Read our Behavioral Health fact sheet (PDF) for more details on our strategy.
• On Sept. 16^th, HHS released the HHS Roadmap for Behavioral Health Integration (Roadmap). Press release can be found HERE. 
• Behavioral health updates from the 2022 CMS Quality Conference.
• NEW study from CMS, CDC and NIH support value of expanding use of telehealth services for opioid use disorder-related care:  Increased Use of Telehealth for OUD Services During COVID-19 Pandemic Associated with Reduced Risk of Overdose.
• CMS launched the new Chronic Pain Experience Illustration that identifies both barriers and the importance of effective treatment and management of pain.
• White House Fact Sheet  on the Strategy to Address Our National Mental Health Crisis. 
• CMS is part of the new Behavioral Health Coordinating Council to coordinate efforts across HHS.
• Follow the Secretary on the National Tour to Strengthen Mental Health.
• CMS supports the HHS Overdose Prevention Strategy which expands the scope of the crisis response beyond opioids to include other substances that are often involved in overdoses.  
• Information on Behavioral Health Integration Services for Medicare Fee-for-Service providers.

Get more details on how we'll achieve our goals.  

We’re just part of the solution. See what’s going on across HHS.