Optum, UnitedHealthcare, and United Behavioral Health recently updated a clinical policy to allow psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners to order, supervise, and administer transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy, expanding access to the treatment. The policy change applies to nurse practitioners practicing in states that grant full practice authority and operating within their licensed scope of practice.
Previously, TMS services under the policy were limited to psychiatrists. The updated policy increases access to Neuronetics’ NeuroStar therapy across 34.8 million commercially covered lives. The expanded policy applies in 26 states and Washington, D.C., including Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia.
Major depressive disorder affects about 21 million adults in the United States, with many patients not responding adequately to antidepressant medications. NeuroStar Advanced Therapy is a noninvasive treatment using magnetic pulses to stimulate brain regions involved in mood regulation. According to data from the NeuroStar Outcomes Database, response rates reach up to 83% and remission rates reach 62%.
Brian Banks, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and owner of Lighthouse Mental Wellness in Pembroke, Massachusetts, stated that the policy update recognizes that nurse practitioners are highly qualified to deliver this therapy. The change addresses workforce capacity issues while expanding treatment availability to more patients across the covered regions.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.mychesco.com/a/news/health-medical/mental-health/optum-expands-tms-policy-to-include-nurse-practitioners/