What to look for beginning in January 2025: Update on Medicare policies on payment and quality, including telehealth

• Highlight key proposals CMS has finalized for the 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Program relevant to the practice of psychiatry.
• Highlight the extension of key policies related to the telemedicine flexibilities for the prescription of controlled medications.
• Respond to questions related to these proposals.
• Use the feedback to inform APA’s future outreach to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Drug Enforcement Administration on the policies.

Lunch and Learn: AI Scribes In The Psychiatric Practice

• Understand the Role of AI in EHR Documentation: Explain the various AI technologies used in clinical documentation, such as machine learning and natural language processing.
• Identify the Benefits of AI Scribes: Discuss how AI scribes can reduce healthcare provider burnout and improve efficiency in clinical documentation.
• Evaluate the Impact on Patient Care: Analyze how AI scribes affect patient-physician interactions, patient satisfaction, and the quality of clinical notes.
• Explore Implementation Challenges: Identify the training and adaptation challenges associated with integrating AI scribes into clinical practice.
• Address Ethical and Privacy Concerns: Discuss the ethical considerations and data privacy issues related to the use of AI in psychiatry.

What Is It Like To Be a Psychiatrist in an Integrated Care Setting?

• Learn about different strategies for integrating care.
• Discuss practical how-tos for integrating mental health and physical health care.
• Understand the impacts of integration on patients, psychiatrists, and other clinicians.

Patient Safety: Stop the Disparity! Eliminating Seclusion and Restraint

• Discuss mental health disparities related to the use of seclusion or restraint.
• Review evidence-based means of reducing or eliminating seclusion and restraint.
• Value patient safety in psychiatry.

Uptake and Barriers to Measurement-Based Care (MBC) in Psychiatric Practice

• Participants will be familiarized with common barriers to implementing MBC across different practice settings and populations.
• Participants will understand a host of options to address barriers to implementation of MBC in their practice setting.
• Participants will apply a framework to analyze efficient methods of implementation of MBC in their practice setting.

Psychiatry and Military Service: How Every Psychiatrist Can Help

• Gain Insight into Military Culture: Explore the unique aspects of military culture to better understand the perspectives and needs of military patients.
• Examine Military Policies Affecting Mental Health Care: Explore key military policies and regulations that impact service members seeking mental health care.
• Develop Strategies to Support Military Patients: Acquire practical strategies and best practices for supporting military patients in your care.

Demystifying the Impact of Harm Reduction Services

• Learn about different harm reduction strategies and its history of implementation.
• Understand the impact that harm reduction has on psychiatrists and their patients.
• How APA is advocating for implementation of harm reduction strategies.

Effective Documentation: Crafting Notes for Client, Colleague, & Care Manager Satisfaction

• Learn about the key documentation considerations relevant to psychiatric care
• Understand the role documentation plays beyond reimbursement

Gambling Disorder, What You Need to Know

• Learn how to identify signs of gambling disorder
• Understand options for treating gambling disorder
• Identify additional APA resources to improve knowledge about gambling disorders

Drug Shortages and Its Impact on Prescribers, Pharmacies, and Patients

• History, variables, and timeline of the stimulant shortage
• Understand the impact of drug shortages on prescribers, pharmacies, and patients
• How APA and the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) are advocating for change

Updates on the Clozapine REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy)

• History, overview, and myths versus facts about the new REMS
• Some of the current issues with REMS bringing in the prescriber data and NAMI data
• Highlight updates from FDA, including three studies that are in progress
• The wide world of things we could advocate for (from no REMS to changing to an “educational REMS”)

Eating Disorders: Early Diagnosis for Better Prognosis — Decision Support and Other Tools

• Name one screening tool that can be use to identify a possible eating disorder.
• Describe how to access and use the web-based decision support tool on eating disorders developed by the APA Practice Guidelines program.
• List at least one other tool that can be used at the point of care to guide assessment and treatment of eating disorders.

2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule & Telehealth Policy Updates

Join APA’s policy team to discuss the landscape of telehealth policy in 2024, including the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and updates to telemedicine prescribing of controlled substances.

Measurement Based Care

• Review the evidence for measurement-based care, and ways it can add value to a practice
• Discuss resources and strategies to implement measurement-based care
• Review common challenges and opportunities for implementing measurement-based care into any practice

Advocacy 101

• Understanding the basics of physician advocacy and the role APA Government Relations plays
• Analyzing key legislative issues for the field of psychiatry
• Identifying ways to effectively advocate for psychiatry at the state and federal levels

AI in Psychiatry: What APA Members Need to Know

• Understand the landscape of AI and key terms relevant to existing and novel uses of AI in clinical care and in society.
• Describe potential applications of AI to psychiatry, with a particular focus on understanding the risks and benefits of different uses.
• Prepare for the potential implementation of AI in your clinical setting, including establishing policies around acceptable and unacceptable uses.

HIPAA Compliance for Telehealth

• Understand what waivers were in place during the COVID-19 PHE and what enforcement actions will resume on August 9, 2023.
• Describe ways that APA members can ensure and maintain HIPAA adherence.
• Discuss challenges and strategies for using HIPAA-adherent technologies.

Health Care Policy and You: How Does APA’s Membership Inform Policy?

• Understand how both regulatory and legislative activity can affect psychiatric practice.
• Describe the strategies that APA uses to advocate on policies that affect psychiatry.
• Identify opportunities for APA’s membership to apply their clinical and practical experience to advocate for policy that is in the interest of psychiatry.

Telepsychiatry Reimbursement: Who Pays for What?

• Understand changes to reimbursement for telepsychiatry.
• Describe updates to coding practices, including timelines for updates, based on federal policy.
• Incorporate changes to practice as a result of federal policy and rules.

Telepsychiatry and the End of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency

• Describe federal policies and priorities around telepsychiatry.
• Understand changes to telepsychiatry after the end of the COVID-19 PHE.
• Incorporate changes to practice as a result of federal policy and rules.