The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has informed state Medicaid programs that it is giving them new opportunities to pay for hospitalization to care for recipients with behavioral health problems.

For years Medicaid has greatly limited the ability of state Medicaid programs to pay for inpatient care for many behavioral health problems – a limit commonly known as the IMD (institution of mental disease) exclusion.  Earlier this year the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services eased this long-time limit, announcing that it would make it easier for states to secure waivers from it.  CMS has announced in a formal guidance letter to state Medicaid directors that it is extending this policy, according to a CMS news release, which explains that the agency offers

…both existing and new opportunities for states to design innovative 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.

Under this new approach, states are invited to develop new delivery systems for serving patients with behavioral problems, and especially substance abuse disorders, that make greater use of inpatient behavioral health services and to receive federal Medicaid matching funds for pay for this care – something that has been greatly limited in the past.  In offering this opportunity, CMS notes that a number of states that have already obtained waivers from the IMD exclusion since its easing of the limit on such waivers earlier this year and are already showing encouraging results in their battle against opioid abuse.

Learn more about this new policy, its intentions, and how it will work in this CMS news release or go here to see the CMS guidance letter to state Medicaid directors.