Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2018 15:53:01 GMT
Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a letter to State Medicaid Directors that outlines both existing and new opportunities for states to design innovative service delivery systems for adults with serious mental illness (SMI) and children with serious emotional disturbance (SED). The letter includes a new opportunity for states to receive authority to pay for short-term residential treatment services in an institution for mental disease (IMD) for these patients. CMS believes these opportunities offer states the flexibility to make significant improvements on access to quality behavioral health care.
Medicaid is the single largest payer of behavioral health services, including mental health and substance use services in the U.S. By one estimate, more than a quarter of adults with a serious mental illness rely on Medicaid. Approximately 10.4 million adults in the United States had an SMI in 2016, but only 65 percent received mental health services in that year. Serious mental health conditions can have detrimental impacts on the lives of individuals with SMI or SED and their families and caregivers. Since these conditions often arise in adolescence or early adulthood and often go untreated for many years, individuals with SMI or SED are less likely to finish high school and attain higher education, disrupting education and employment goals.
“More treatment options for serious mental illness are needed, and that includes more inpatient and residential options. As with the SUD waivers, we will strongly emphasize that inpatient treatment is just one part of what needs to be a complete continuum of care, and participating states will be expected to take action to improve community-based mental health care,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. “There are effective methods for treating the seriously mentally ill in the outpatient setting, which have a strong track record of success and which this administration supports. We can support both inpatient and outpatient investments at the same time. Both tools are necessary, and both are too hard to access today.”
This country needs to treat the young mentally ill people who go off the rails and do mass shootings.
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Medicaid is the single largest payer of behavioral health services, including mental health and substance use services in the U.S. By one estimate, more than a quarter of adults with a serious mental illness rely on Medicaid. Approximately 10.4 million adults in the United States had an SMI in 2016, but only 65 percent received mental health services in that year. Serious mental health conditions can have detrimental impacts on the lives of individuals with SMI or SED and their families and caregivers. Since these conditions often arise in adolescence or early adulthood and often go untreated for many years, individuals with SMI or SED are less likely to finish high school and attain higher education, disrupting education and employment goals.
“More treatment options for serious mental illness are needed, and that includes more inpatient and residential options. As with the SUD waivers, we will strongly emphasize that inpatient treatment is just one part of what needs to be a complete continuum of care, and participating states will be expected to take action to improve community-based mental health care,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. “There are effective methods for treating the seriously mentally ill in the outpatient setting, which have a strong track record of success and which this administration supports. We can support both inpatient and outpatient investments at the same time. Both tools are necessary, and both are too hard to access today.”
This country needs to treat the young mentally ill people who go off the rails and do mass shootings.
Artracer