The Senate Health, Energy, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Wednesday unanimously passed a mental health and substance abuse package that didn’t address the issue. Several senators said they wanted to get rid of an old Medicaid regulation that prohibits federal funds for clinics with more than 16 beds treating mental health and substance abuse patients. Originally created to deinstitutionalize mental health care, members argue now that it creates a barrier to providing Medicaid services for behavioral treatment outside of hospitals.
The problem is that undoing that rule is expected to cost between $40 and $80 billion, depending on the specifics, and finding a way to cover the price tag of the change will be challenging. A complicating factor is that the regulation falls under the jurisdiction of the Senate Finance Committee, which has yet to consider anything on changing the Medicaid Institutions for Mental Disease, or IMD, rule.
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