NCPA News Archives

NCPA prints a quarterly newsletter titled NCPA News. See all the archived editions here.

Membership Questions

The American Psychiatric Association and the NC Psychiatric Association have a dual membership requirement for General Members and Members-in-Training.  Members must join both organizations. We do our best to answer your questions about membership including dues relief, paying dues, awards, and more.

Public Health Emergency to End May 11

The federal Public Health Emergency (PHE) is scheduled to end of May 11, 2023, which will create changes to how healthcare has been delivered these past three years. Under the PHE, a number of restrictions were lifted to help patients receive services; many of the pre-pandemic rules will go back into place when the PHE ends. For example, health care professionals will be required to use a HIPAA-complaint software for telehealth.

NEW! The DEA is considering changes to the ability to prescribed controlled substances via telemedicine. The telehealth flexibilities will remain intact until at least November 11, 2023.

No Surprises Act 

We want to call your attention to a new federal regulation that went in to effect January 1, 2022. This rule will require psychiatrists and other health care providers to give a “good faith estimate” (GFE) to a patient of what their services will cost and how long they may last.  While this policy is part of most informed consent forms, signed by the patient already, it is prudent to review what the GFE is more formally requesting psychiatrists include in their information to the patient about the course of their treatment. The main difference about past practices and the GFE is that it applies to private pay patients as well as insured patients and uninsured patients.

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With the signing of the state budget, the N.C. General Assembly enacted a law temporarily suspending enforcement provisions in the statewide Health Information Exchange Act. The deadline to connect to N.C. Health Connex (January 1, 2023) is unchanged, but the provision that stops the withholding of payment to providers who have not yet connected to the NCHIEA “…connecting to and submitting data through the HIE Network known as NC HealthConnex shall not be a condition precedent to the receipt of State funds, including Medicaid funds, by any provider.” Learn more about these changes here.