NAMD Calls for Additional Flexibilities in Medicaid Behavioral Health Services

April 2016, NAMD sent a letter to Congressional leaders requesting targeted flexibilities to better provide behavioral health services in Medicaid. Specifically, NAMD called out barriers to medically necessary care created by the Institutions for Mental Diseases exclusion, which prohibits the use of federal Medicaid funds for care provided to most patients in mental health and substance use disorder residential treatment facilities with more than 16 beds, and the need for the full array of reimbursement and care coordination strategies to be used in the Certified Community Behavioral Health Center demonstration.