Critical access hospitals : views on how Medicare payment and other factors affect behavioral health services : report to congressional committees Views on how Medicare payment and other factors affect behavioral health services Government Regulation Hospitals, Rural Legislation, Medical Medicare Mental Health Services Why GAO did this study. As of March 2023, there were 1,365 CAHs nationwide, according to officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare FFS pays CAHs based on their costs for most services, which may be greater than predetermined fixed amounts that other hospitals are paid. However, services provided in psychiatric units are not paid based on costs and are instead paid through Medicare’s prospective payment system. This has led to questions about whether Medicare payment policies make it difficult for CAHs to meet Medicare beneficiaries’ behavioral health needs. House Report 116-450 includes a provision for GAO to review the behavioral health services provided by CAHs. This report describes (1) how selected CAHs provide behavioral health services and (2) selected CAHs’ and stakeholders’ views on how Medicare FFS payment policies and other factors affect CAHs’ ability to provide these services. GAO interviewed officials from 10 CAHs selected to reflect variation in geography and the settings in which they offer behavioral health services. GAO also interviewed stakeholders from six organizations that advocate for, or conduct research on, CAHs or rural hospitals, as well as officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In addition, GAO reviewed federal laws, regulations, and agency policy documents. Washington, DC : United States Government Accountability Office, June 2023 United States. Government Accountability Office, issuing body. Technical Report Text 1 online resource (1 PDF file (i, 22 pages)) nlm:nlmuid-9918681586106676-pdf 9918681586106676 http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918681586106676 English United States The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0