Overview
The complex legal and regulatory landscape that plays such an outsized role in the health care industry generally takes on another order of complexity when it comes to behavioral health. Our behavioral health attorneys help providers and health plans of all kinds navigate that landscape, which is still unsettled and fraught with compliance pitfalls.
As the demand for behavioral health services skyrockets—and as access to those services lags woefully behind—our clients depend on us to help them launch their businesses, get reimbursed for their services, and maintain compliance with the intimidating array of behavioral health laws, rules, and regulations.
Understanding Compliance
Behavioral health is an extremely broad regulatory category, quite different from traditional medical services. It covers a wide range of programs whose treatments are open-ended (including mental health care and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and prevention), and whose outcomes are difficult to quantify. Moreover, the regulatory requirements vary widely, not just from state to state but also from profession to profession. With behavioral health practices drawing heightened scrutiny from regulators, we help our clients understand their obligations under behavioral health laws and steer clear of the risks and penalties that attend compliance violations.
Grappling with Mental Health Parity
As the industry continues to address the promise, as yet unfulfilled, of the mental health parity laws, plans and providers alike turn to us for guidance. These are not easy laws to comply with, as they have not yet been fully interpreted—correct answers can be elusive. Even so, our clients trust us to provide sophisticated yet practical guidance on delivering mental health services in a compliant manner. In a field brimming with startups, we also help new companies structure their businesses, negotiate their contracts, and oversee their compliance issues.
Supporting Substance Use Disorder Stakeholders
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated a major mental and behavioral health crisis, putting increased pressure on a strained SUD treatment system. Parties on the front lines of that crisis—SUD providers and treatment facilities, health plans, and associations—looked to us for complete legal support for their transactional, regulatory, contracting, reimbursement, and strategic initiatives. With a team that includes attorneys who previously worked at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), we help clients navigate all applicable federal and state laws, regulations, and guidelines relating to mental health and substance abuse services. We also advise on SUD service coverage and reimbursement issues and work closely with investors interested in the SUD space to evaluate regulatory risks associated with particular investments or acquisitions.
Our Telemental Health Laws App
As the online delivery of behavioral (also known as "telebehavioral" or "telemental") health services grows exponentially, we continue to update our invaluable app, Telemental Health Laws, a comprehensive collection of state regulatory requirements for all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. This free app, available to anyone, provides users with state-specific content relating to the regulatory requirements for professional practitioners and stakeholders in multiple mental health fields.
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Focus Areas
Services
Industries
Experience
- Currently assist multiple startup telebehavioral health entities in starting up their businesses nationally. We advise these entities on corporate, regulatory, provider network, managed care, and reimbursement issues.
- Currently provide advice to a nascent network of a dozen behavioral and medical health care providers (also known as a “Behavioral Health Care Collaborative”) in New York on legally compliant ways to organize a shared infrastructure and integrated care delivery model in order to improve health outcomes, manage costs, and participate in cutting-edge value-based payment arrangements.
- Served as counsel to a national association focused on mental and behavioral health care issues. We tracked recent and significant federal rulemaking efforts related to mental health parity, prepared summaries of the relevant proposed and final rules upon publication, and delivered webinar presentations for the association’s membership discussing key provisions in the proposed and final rules.
- Advised a clinic in Washington, DC, that provides primary care services to Latino residents of the District. The clinic won a $500,000 grant from a large insurer to implement a regional telepsychiatry program. We are currently advising the clinic on a number of regulatory issues regarding the implementation of the telepsychiatry program.
- Advised numerous major telebehavioral companies on regulatory issues concerning telehealth, corporate practice of medicine, reimbursement, the Food and Drug Administration, compliance, and fraud and abuse.
- Reviewed and negotiated managed care agreements for providers with payors involving behavioral health carve-in matters.
- Provided advice and counsel on state-specific requirements related to crisis management in telemental health services, the development of applicable crisis management protocols, and the structure of management and other arrangements with behavioral health practices in compliance with applicable state corporate practice of medicine restrictions.
Contacts
- Member of the Firm
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- Board of Directors / Member of the Firm
Media
Events
Upcoming Events
Past Events
- October 24, 2022
- October 10, 2022
- July 11, 2022
- April 28, 2022
Insights
Insights
- Media CoverageAmy Lerman Featured on Podcast: “Navigating the Telehealth Landscape for 2024”1 minute read
- Firm AnnouncementsEpstein Becker Green Announces 2024 Promotions6 minute read
- BlogsJust Released: Telemental Health Laws – Download Our Complimentary Survey and App3 minute read
- Firm Announcements2023 Telemental Health Regulations Chart New Course in Post-PHE World5 minute read
- PublicationsTelemental Health Laws: 2023 Overview10 minute read
- Media CoverageDavid Shillcutt Quoted in “Calls for Detail Emerge as Theme in Parity Rule Comments”3 minute read
- PublicationsCalifornia Enacts Statute That Furthers Efforts to Move Toward a Unified Health Care Financing System11 minute read
- Media CoverageEmma Pelkey Featured in “People on the Move”1 minute read
- Media CoverageSharon Peters Featured in “People on the Move”1 minute read
- BlogsDEA to Host Listening Sessions on Remote Prescribing6 minute read
- Media CoverageEric Neiman Featured in “People on the Move”1 minute read
- Media CoverageAlaap Shah Quoted in "New Health App Rule Would Better Protect Users – and So Can You"2 minute read
- Media CoverageDavid Shillcutt Quoted in “3 Items on Attys' Wish List for Mental Health Parity Guidance”2 minute read
- PublicationsHidden in Plain Sight: Lesser-Known Exceptions Recently Adopted by Congress to the Federal Physician Self-Referral Law and ...8 minute read
- Media Coverage
Epstein Becker Green’s Diagnosing Health Care Podcast Featured in It’s All Hearsay! – “The End of the ...
2 minute read - PublicationsRecent Federal Actions Significantly Enhance Access to Substance Use Disorder Treatment2 minute read
- Media CoverageDavid Shillcutt Quoted in “Patients Down, but Not Out, After 9th Circ. Benefits Ruling”3 minute read
- PublicationsBiden Administration Prioritizes Health Equity in Proposed Reforms to Medicare Managed Care33 minute read
- Media Coverage
Clifford Barnes Featured in Follow the Brand Podcast: “Wise Counsel”
2 minute read - Media CoverageEpstein Becker Green’s Telemental Health Laws Survey Featured in “States Continue to Expand Regulations to Support ...3 minute read
- Firm Announcements2022 Telemental Health Regulations Unlock Access and Evolve Compliance Practices6 minute read
- PublicationsTelemental Health Laws: 2022 Overview8 minute read
- BlogsJust Released: Telemental Health Laws – Download Our Complimentary Survey and App3 minute read
- Media CoverageJayme Matchinski Featured in “Health Hires: Epstein Becker Green”2 minute read
- Media Coverage
Jayme Matchinski Featured in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin’s “People” Column
1 minute read - Media CoverageJayme Matchinski Featured in “Laterals, Moves, In-House”1 minute read
- Firm AnnouncementsHealth Care Attorney Jayme R. Matchinski Joins Epstein Becker Green in Chicago3 minute read
- Firm AnnouncementsLynn Shapiro Snyder Serves on the Nashville Health Care Council’s Board of Directors2 minute read
- Media CoverageLynn Shapiro Snyder Continues Service on Nashville Health Care Council’s Board of Directors2 minute read
- Media CoverageEpstein Becker Green Finds Success with Client-Facing Wage & Hour and Telemental Health Laws Apps3 minute read
- Media CoverageGary Herschman, Anjana Patel, Timothy McHale Quoted in “Health-Care Deals Stay Strong Amid Fears Over War in Ukraine” ...3 minute read
- PublicationsTri-Agencies Release Report on Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) Compliance1 minute read
- PublicationsRecord Number of Health-Care Deals Close 2021 with a Bang4 minute read
- Media Coverage
Glenn Prives Featured in Bloomberg Law “Wake Up Call: Laterals, Moves, In-House”
1 minute read - Media CoverageKevin Malone, David Shillcutt Quoted in “DOL Says Employers Struggling with Mental Health Parity Law”4 minute read
- Media CoverageNJBiz Features Glenn Prives in “Health Care Attorney Joins Epstein Becker Green”2 minute read
- Media CoverageEpstein Becker Green Welcomes Glenn Prives, Health Care and Corporate Attorney3 minute read
- Firm AnnouncementsHealth Care & Corporate Law Attorney Glenn P. Prives Joins Epstein Becker Green4 minute read
- Media CoverageEpstein Becker Green Reports Telemental Health’s Influence Grows Throughout COVID-19 Pandemic3 minute read
- Media CoverageEpstein Becker Green’s Telemental Health Laws Survey Featured in “Fraud Enforcement Followed Spike in Telemental ...5 minute read
- Media CoverageGary Herschman, Kevin Malone Discuss Private Equity’s Push into the Mental Health Space in Q&A with Dana Jacoby ...3 minute read
- Media CoverageEpstein Becker Green’s Telemental Health Laws Survey Featured in “Analysis Finds Uptick in Telehealth Fraud ...5 minute read
- Media CoverageEpstein Becker Green’s Telemental Health Laws Survey Featured in “Lawmakers, Agencies Ink Telehealth Rules While They ...4 minute read
- Firm AnnouncementsEpstein Becker Green Reports Telemental Health’s Influence Grows Throughout COVID-19 Pandemic6 minute read
- Firm AnnouncementsEpstein Becker Green Announces 2022 Promotions6 minute read
- PublicationsU.S. Department of Labor Settles Unprecedented Lawsuit Against United Healthcare for Alleged Violations of the Mental ...2 minute read
- Media CoverageKevin Malone Quoted in “Employers on Hook for Mental Health Parity Despite New Target”4 minute read
- PublicationsBest Practices for Mental Health Parity: Considerations for ImplementationAugust 20213 minute read
- PublicationsU.S. Department of Labor Settles Unprecedented Lawsuit Against United Healthcare for Violations of the Mental Health ...12 minute read
- Media CoverageLynn Shapiro Snyder Joins Nashville Health Care Council’s Board of Directors2 minute read