Medicaid behavioral health: CMS guidance needed to better align demonstration payment rates with costs and prevent duplication : report to Congressional committees
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Contributor(s):
- United States. Government Accountability Office. issuing body. United States. Congress. issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : United States Government Accountability Office, September 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Community Mental Health Services -- standards Government Regulation Medicaid -- economics Mental Disorders -- economics United States United States. Department of Health and Human Services
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Why GAO did this study. Behavioral health conditions affected an estimated 61.2 million adults in 2019. Congress has taken steps to expand access to behavioral health treatment, including authorizing the CCBHC demonstration, which is intended to improve the availability of community-based behavioral health services. The CARES Act included a provision for GAO to report on states’ experiences participating in the CCBHC demonstration. Among other objectives, this report describes what states reported about how the CCBHC demonstration affected state spending on behavioral health services; and examines CMS guidance for states on Medicaid CCBHC payments. GAO reviewed documentation from and interviewed Medicaid and behavioral health officials from the eight CCBHC demonstration states, as well as federal officials tasked with demonstration oversight. GAO also reviewed documentation and interviewed officials from a nongeneralizable sample of three CCBHCs, which GAO selected for a number of reasons, including variation in geographic location. What GAO recommends. GAO is making two recommendations, including that CMS issue clear and consistent written guidance to help states (1) better align payment rates with clinics’ costs; and (2) avoid potential duplication between CCBHC and other Medicaid payments. HHS concurred with GAO’s recommendations, and provided technical comments, which were incorporated as appropriate.
- Copyright:
- The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (iii, 40 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918317780806676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918317780806676