New Medicaid Option Promotes Enhanced Mental Health, Substance Use Crisis Care
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is working with states to promote access to Medicaid services for people with mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) crises. Authorized under President Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARP), states have a new option for supporting community-based mobile crisis intervention services for individuals with Medicaid. Mobile crisis intervention services are essential tools to meet people in crisis where they are and rapidly provide critical services to people experiencing mental health or substance use crises by connecting them to a behavioral health specialist 24 hours per day, 365 days a year. This new option will help states integrate these services into their Medicaid programs, a critical component in establishing a sustainable and public health-focused support network.
