Medicare Bids to Fill Mental Health Coverage Gap After Hill Push

Credit Congress for Medicare’s recent move to fill a gaping hole in its behavioral health coverage next year.

Section 4124 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 required Medicare to start covering “intensive outpatient” mental health and substance use disorder services in 2024. The coverage—which entails nine to 19 hours of treatment services per week—is part of a “continuum of care” developed by the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

Medicare now covers only the least intensive types of treatments on the continuum, namely, early intervention and outpatient services, along with the most intensive treatment types, or residential inpatient services ...