HHS To Offer New Grants for CCBHCs
By Grace Scullion | Politico 10/18/2022
HHS will provide $1 million grants to 15 states early next year to develop a plan for behavioral health clinics. After developing a plan, states are eligible to apply for a four-year demonstration grant to get the clinics up and running.
The Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics aim to combat a national mental health and opioid crisis.
The funding comes from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Congress passed in June to tighten gun controls and improve mental health services following the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May.
The funding builds on $300 million in grants the Biden administration issued earlier this year.
How it works: The clinics receive enhanced Medicaid reimbursements for behavioral health services, including:
— 24/7 mobile crisis support
— Outpatient mental health and substance use counseling
— Primary care screening
— Mental health care tailored for veterans
— Medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorder.
This isn’t the first time that Congress has tried this approach. Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) co-sponsored 2014 legislation to create the first clinics in eight states. There are now clinics in 10.
How the clinics have performed: Data from clinics show decreased hospitalization, jail time, homelessness and emergency department visits for patients after only six months of treatment. The clinics were able to serve, on average, 17 percent more patients than before receiving Medicaid reimbursement. Blunt said he predicts that the clinics will save money by preventing health crises.
“After the tragedy in Uvalde, as is always the case, the first thing that almost everyone says is that the mental health system isn’t working the way it should be,” he said. “We called everyone who was working on putting the package together to explain that we did have a system that was working.”
What’s next: Stabenow said she wants every state to have clinics and that the money is now there to do it. She called the funding in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act “the largest expansion of Medicaid health services since the Affordable Care Act.”
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