Issues

Behavioral Health

Behavioral Health

The growing demand for mental health and substance use services among people of all ages, coupled with a precipitous drop in the number of people working in behavioral health, has caused an ongoing crisis in timely access to care. Hospitals are working to address this growing demand for services.

Hospitals continue to advocate for state support to meet current needs and make system improvements, including calling for legislation to:

  • Support the establishment of Medicaid rate structures for new initiatives such as children’s behavioral health urgent care centers, statewide emergency mobile psychiatric services, and community-based and school-based services
  • Focus on retaining and recruiting a skilled, diverse, and resilient workforce, and encourage the implementation of integrated care models for child, adolescent, and adult patients, such as Community Care Teams (CCTs)
  • Invest additional financial resources to sustain and increase access to home-based, community-based, and hospital-based outpatient services for all patients
  • Increase Medicaid rates for partial hospitalization program (PHP), intensive outpatient services (IOP), and in-home psychiatric care programs to enable timely and safe discharge from hospitals, reduce waiting lists, and improve timely access to behavioral health services
  • Implement Medicaid reimbursement for care coordination initiatives
  • Expand the urgent crisis center model and mobile crisis services

Carl Schiessl

Senior Director, Regulatory Advocacy

(203) 294-7341
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