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Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), announced $46.8 million in notices of funding opportunities to promote youth mental health, grow the behavioral health workforce, improve access to culturally competent behavioral care across the country, and strengthen peer recovery and recovery support. President Biden made tackling the mental health crisis and beating the opioid epidemic key pillars in his Unity Agenda for the nation. Today’s announcement will help communities transform how they address behavioral health. (5/8)

Congress took the first step Wednesday to extend expiring telehealth rules, hospital at home services and other programs aimed at rural hospitals. The House Ways and Means Committee passed the Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act of 2024 by a vote of 31-0, setting it up for passage by the full House later this year. (McAuliff, 5/8)

The US hasn’t enforced its antitrust laws enough in the health care industry, top Justice Department officials said, voicing particular concern about consolidation among groups of doctors and nurses. “We are becoming more lucid to under-enforcement in healthcare,” Doha Mekki, the No. 2 official in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said during a Bloomberg roundtable on Wednesday. The US has roughly 2,000 fewer hospitals today than existed in 1998, she said. (Nylen and Willmer, 5/8)

Six months after the launch of the Biden administration’s “birthing friendly” designation for hospitals, advocates are questioning the next steps for the tool aimed at incentivizing better care for patients. (Hellmann, 5/9)