Tuesday, June 27

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Keynote Examines the State of Mental Health

Overcoming stigma is the number one barrier to improving mental health care, AHLA’s keynote speaker for its 2023 Annual Meeting, Dr. Nina Vasan—a psychiatrist and professor at Stanford, and founder and Executive Director of Brainstorm: The Stanford Lab for Mental Health and Innovation—told meeting attendees June 26.

Although we have seen a transformation of mental health during COVID that marked a sharp decline in stigma, we still have a long way to go, Vasan said. Often the need for care is identified too late. The average amount of time between a person feeling symptoms of a mental health condition and seeking treatment is 11 years, she noted.

Another barrier is lack of access. Too few doctors to treat the large numbers of patients in need of mental health care and insurance coverage gaps contribute to the problem. “Parity is nowhere near where it should be,” Vasan said, highlighting that insurance coverage also doesn’t match the way mental illness presents itself. Although there is decent coverage of both ends of the mental illness spectrum—very sick patients who need hospitalization and patients who visit a therapist on an outpatient basis—there isn’t enough attention paid to the middle of the spectrum, according to Vasan. Intensive outpatient treatment and partial hospitalization are two such options, but very few people are aware of them, she noted.

Vasan also called on health lawyers to help push for policy changes that she believes could vastly improve mental health care—telehealth reimbursement, easing HIPAA restrictions, and dissolving state boundaries.

During a lively question and answer session with incoming AHLA President Patricia Markus, Markus asked Vasan about the link between gun violence, mental health, and video games. The surprising answer? There is “exactly zero correlation or causation” between video games and violence. In fact, according to Vasan, video games have been found to lead to a decrease in violent behavior and can improve cognitive and emotional skills.

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Mental Health Parity: Top Administration Priority/Focus of Congress–Latest Developments

Tim Clement (American Psychiatric Association), Brad E. Lerner (Elevance Health), and David Lloyd (Kennedy Forum)

As the government continues to increase its focus on this critical area of care, those who advise the health care industry should be following legislative and regulatory developments. Recent and anticipated activity includes:

• Congress and state legislatures have passed enhanced compliance requirements for the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act over the past 5 years.
• Regulatory oversight of the law has increased significantly over that same time and shows no signs of abating.
• Major new rules for the law will be issued soon by federal regulators.

Year in Review Session Highlights Important (and Sometimes Ridiculous) Health Law Developments

AHLA’s invariably popular Year in Review session highlighted the most important developments in health law for Annual Meeting attendees. This lively session was presented by S. Craig Holden, Shareholder, Baker Donelson; Robert Homchick, Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP; and Cindy Wisner, Associate Counsel, Trinity Health, and is an AHLA must-see event each year.

The YIR updated attendees on important public health issues such as COVID-19, the state of abortion law post-Dobbs, and access to care. The presenters reviewed a multitude of new payment rules, including some of the effects of the Inflation Reduction Act, and gave the audience a comprehensive rundown of the countless fraud and abuse developments in the past year, including the two recently issued Supreme Court decisions on the False Claims Act.

The presenters also highlighted that “you might not be that safe in a safe harbor,” after two recent cases found certain actions were not protected. Guidance from the OIG and the DOJ can also sometimes be conflicting, the presenters said.

Noting that “private equity has a PR problem,” Homchick told attendees that he would expect more government enforcement actions targeting private equity in the coming year.

If you have ever found yourself wondering “what the heck is going on in the morgues,” all you needed to do was attend this session to learn from Wisner that apparently morgue workers have found an innovative way to supplement their income by selling body parts.

The session also explored AI in health care, cybersecurity, and data privacy issues; quality of care and liability issues; COVID-related litigation; controlled substance and drug pricing issues; employment issues; significant transactions and industry trends; mergers and FTC actions; tax issues; EMTALA and ensuring access to emergency reproductive care; and clinical research.

Whew! If you didn’t think health law could be fun, you have to catch this spirited two-hour tour through all things health law!

Got Pixels? Regulatory and Legal Implications of the Use of AdTech on Health Websites

Thora A. Johnson (Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe), Lynn Sessions (BakerHostetler), and Andrew Shaxted (FTI Consulting)

Speakers warned that in the health care industry, analytics trackers and pixels can sometimes result in the transmission of health information to unauthorized third parties—surfacing significant compliance and litigation risk. They recommended steps that organizations should take to review and, if necessary, remediate—requiring input from legal, IT, digital marketing, compliance, privacy, and other stakeholders.

Announcing the 2023 Fellows Class

Being named an AHLA Fellow is an honorary designation and is given in recognition of members' sustained commitment and service to the health law profession generally and to AHLA specifically.

It is with immense gratitude and honor that we recognize our 2023 class of Fellows for their career-long achievements, contributions and tenure with AHLA, and their continuing service and leadership in the legal profession. AHLA Fellows are ambassadors for the Association and serve as role models and mentors to current AHLA members.