Medicare Mental Health and Substance Use Coverage Changes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Future Coverage

This project aims to develop expert and evidence-based guidance to inform decisions about whether Medicare policy changes regarding mental illness made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic should be made permanent. The project will: 1) identify mental health-related policy changes made over the course of the pandemic, using the Fund tracker and framework developed by HMA (Jon Blum and Jennifer Podulka) in previous grants; 2) complete an integrative literature review of scholarly and gray literature to summarize the effects of each policy; and 3) conduct a modified Delphi panel, which consists of a survey and a virtual convening of experts to develop recommendations for policymakers. The project will explicitly consider the equity implications of policies for beneficiaries of color and other vulnerable beneficiaries.