This week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced approval of Oregon’s plan to cover community-based mobile crisis intervention services for individuals experiencing mental health or substance use crises under a new Medicaid state option. As we’ve previously highlighted on Say Ahhh!, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), passed in March 2021, included a […]
Medicaid’s pediatric benefit, Early and Periodic Screening Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT), is getting more attention from federal officials. As part of its child health-focused release yesterday, CMS released a new Informational Bulletin reiterating EPSDT’s requirement to cover screenings and medically necessary treatment for children’s behavioral health, mental health and substance use disorders. The timing is […]
CMS made three big announcements yesterday, drawing attention to ways Medicaid and CHIP can support children’s health and well-being. The first two announcements are sub-regulatory guidance documents, essentially bringing together all of the existing state options and best practices on behavioral health and school-based health. Sub-regulatory guidance doesn’t include new policy, but rather aims to […]
Last month, the new three-digit mental health crisis and suicide prevention number – 988 – went live for call, text, and chat. Established by the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020, this easy to remember number is meant to support people experiencing suicidal ideation, mental health and substance use crises, or any kind of […]
This week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an update to its Medicaid and CHIP COVID-19 data snapshot with new data through January 2022. Unfortunately, as highlighted in the snapshot, while the number of mental health services provided to adults during the public health emergency nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, the rate […]
[Editor’s Note: The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act has since passed the Senate and the House and was signed into law by the President on Saturday, June 25th.] As we wrote about last week, the Senate has been actively working to advance an agreement on a gun safety bill that includes a number of provisions related to mental health. […]
