National Association for Behavioral Healthcare Welcomes HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to 2023 Annual Meeting!

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra will kick off the National Association for Behavioral Healthcare's (NABH) 2023 Annual Meeting today at the Salamander Washington, D.C.

NABH celebrates two important milestones at its 2023 Annual Meeting: the association's 90^th anniversary and the 15^th anniversary of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). NABH is eager to remind attendees of the many ways the behavioral healthcare community has helped change the U.S. healthcare system, and, in turn, helped improve and save lives in the last nine decades.

Mostly, though, NABH is looking ahead. This year's Annual Meeting theme – Securing the Promise of Parity – is a call to action for the work that remains to ensure MHPAEA is implemented fully and fairly.

NABH President and CEO Shawn Coughlin will welcome attendees at 2:15 p.m. ET in the hotel's Grand Ballroom and introduce Secretary Becerra, the 25th secretary of HHS and the first Latino in U.S. history to hold the office.

Previously Becerra was California's attorney general and before that served for 12 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he was the first Latino to serve as a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Becerra also served as chairman of his party's caucus and as the ranking member of both the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health and Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security.

Born in Sacramento, Becerra is the son of working-class parents. He was the first in his family to receive a four-year degree, earning his bachelor's degree in economics from Stanford University. He earned his law degree from Stanford Law School.

Becerra will offer brief remarks and then engage in a question-and-answer session with 2023 NABH Board Chair Harsh Trivedi, M.D., M.B.A., president and CEO of Sheppard Pratt. Following the session, Trivedi will address attendees and show a brief video commemorating NABH's 90 years of advocacy.

About NABH
The National Association for Behavioral Healthcare (NABH) represents provider systems that treat children, adolescents, adults, and older adults with mental health and substance use disorders in inpatient behavioral healthcare hospitals and units, residential treatment facilities, partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs, medication assisted treatment centers, specialty outpatient behavioral healthcare programs, and recovery support services in 49 states and Washington, D.C. The association was founded in 1933.

SOURCE National Association for Behavioral Healthcare