May 30, 2025: State Advocacy Update

The ALL IN: Wellbeing First for Healthcare, a national coalition led by the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation Wellbeing First Champion Challenge announced this week that it has verified that 50 licensure boards and 635 hospitals have eliminated inappropriate, stigmatizing questions about mental health and substance use disorders from their licensing or credentialing applications as of May 22, 2025—benefiting nearly 1.4 million licensed health workers and 274,000 credentialed health workers, respectively. In addition to 37 state medical boards, the coalition recognized seven pharmacy boards, five state nursing boards and one state dental board.

“The American Medical Association (AMA) is proud to work alongside the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation to help more hospitals and health systems take meaningful action to support the mental health of physicians and other healthcare professionals,” said Bruce A. Scott, MD, president of the AMA. “Prioritizing the well-being of our nation’s health care workforce must be recognized as a fundamental part of delivering high-quality care to patients.”  

The AMA encourages medical boards and others interested in whether their applications and other forms are consistent with the coalition’s recommendations to use the coalition’s toolkits to review and revise their applications and forms.  

“By adopting practices that minimize stigma and encourage workers to seek the help they need, health care organizations can improve outcomes for both health workers and patients,” said Corey Feist, co-founder and CEO of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation. “This progress reflects a growing understanding that those who care for others have the right to care for themselves—without risking their careers.” 

Learn more (PDF) about the AMA’s campaign to support medical student, resident and physician health and wellness. 

Numerous counties in Illinois face limited in-network access to mental health and substance use disorder providers, among other key issues highlighted through The Mental Health Parity Index, a first-of-its-kind interactive tool visualizing commercial insurer data to evaluate parity between mental health and substance use disorder care compared to physical health.  

The Mental Health Parity Index was released by The Kennedy Forum, Third Horizon and the AMA. The index provides key, county-by-county metrics for in-network providers and reimbursement rates for providers. The Mental Health Parity Index is being piloted in Illinois with a planned expansion nationwide. 

“Let’s be clear—every parity violation is, at its core, a delay or denial of care and leads to patient harm. This is unacceptable and health plans must do better,” said AMA Immediate Past President Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH. 

Key Findings of the Mental Health Parity Index in Illinois include: 

• Across all health plans statewide, fewer mental health providers are contracted relative to physical health providers.  

• For all outpatient professional services, physical health services are reimbursed at higher rates than mental health services.  

• Hospitals receive almost twice as much per day for a physical health admission as they do for a mental health admission.   

“This tool offers an unprecedented view, showing where we are succeeding and falling short in ensuring that mental health is essential health,” said Patrick J. Kennedy, The Kennedy Forum co-founder and co-author of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.  

“This tool, for the first time, has the power to illuminate specific geographies where an individual health plan can enhance their in-network coverage by providing clear metrics on how to take that cost and life-saving action,” said Greg Williams, President of Third Horizon. 

“The American Medical Association looks forward to using this tool to increase transparency and strengthen enforcement of mental health and substance use disorder parity laws—which is long overdue,” said Bobby Mukkamala, MD, AMA president-elect and chair of the AMA Substance Use and Pain Care Task Force.  

Read more about the Mental Health Parity Index.

The Michigan House Health Policy Committee heard testimony last week on House Bill 4277 (PDF), which ensures that medical licensure applicants do not have to answer inappropriate, stigmatizing questions about mental health. The bill requires two questions to be part of a licensure application: a) “Do you have any reason to believe that you would pose a risk to the safety or well-being of a patient or client?”; and b) “Are you able to perform the essential functions of the health profession for which you are seeking license, registration, or renewal, with or without reasonable accommodation?” 

This legislation, which prohibits any other question about mental health, is strongly supported by the Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS), the AMA and the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation.  

“Physicians in Michigan face one of the highest risks of burnout and depression in any profession,” Brittany Tayler, MD, MSMS board member, testified in support of the legislation. “They deserve to feel safe when accessing care—without fear it will later be used against them.” 

“HB 4277 goes straight to the heart of protecting physicians and other health care professionals by appropriately requiring any questions on a licensing application to only focus on an applicant’s current fitness to practice medicine,” wrote (PDF) AMA CEO and EVP James L. Madara, MD, in a letter of support for the bill. “HB 4277 will help support physicians and other health care professionals—and make Michigan a more attractive place to recruit and retain a healthy workforce.” 

Expansions of harm reduction initiatives such as naloxone access and support for medications for opioid use disorder have been critical in reducing the number of lives lost from the nation’s deadly drug-related overdose and death epidemic. The AMA’s Advocacy Resource Center has released a new issue brief to encourage continued urgency for naloxone prescribing and distribution: Help save lives—prescribe and distribute naloxone (PDF). 

Building on AMA recommendations as well as the AMA Substance Use and Pain Care Task Force, this issue brief provides clinical considerations, relevant data and other resources to broadly support increased access to naloxone. 

• May 30, 2025: Medicare Payment Reform Advocacy Update
• May 30, 2025: National Advocacy Update