Latest
-
CMS Releases Long-Awaited EPSDT Behavioral Health Toolkit for States
Say Ahhh! readers will recall that when we blogged about the behavioral health section of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) landmark 2024 EPSDT guidance, we noted that CMS had an additional EPSDT behavioral health resource in the works — an EPSDT Behavioral Health Services Toolkit. Now, over two years later, that toolkit…
-
The Perfect Storm: How Immigration and Medicaid Policy Changes Are Exacerbating a Student Mental Health Crisis
Before the current wave of immigration policy changes, America’s children were already in crisis. Youth mental health had deteriorated to the point that in 2021, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a public health advisory and the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association took the…
-
School-Based Health Services Remain Critical to Keeping Kids Healthy in 2026: New Toolkit Offers a Guide
In Partnership With: Medicaid covers essential student health services, including mental and behavioral health care. From funding school health staffing, direct services and screening programs, to covering assistive equipment and technology for students with disabilities, Medicaid helps to ensure students are able to learn and thrive. As readers of Say Ahhh! know, earlier this year,…
-
Congress Reauthorized the SUPPORT Act, Now Comes the Hard Part
On December 1, President Trump signed into law the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act of 2025, extending a number of substance use disorder (SUD) prevention, treatment, and recovery programs through fiscal year 2030. The bipartisan bill—which passed the House 366-57 in June and the Senate by unanimous consent in September—reauthorizes critical programs including…
-
States Should Use Rural Transformation Fund to Focus on Children and Families
At this moment, states are seeking input and putting ideas on paper to develop priorities for their state applications for a piece of the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund included in H.R. 1 (with applications due to the federal government by November 5th). Our colleague Adam Searing reminded readers that these funds will by…
