A group of senators is asking CMS to clarify whether Medicaid funds can be used to pay for crisis stabilization in facilities with more than 16 beds.
Current law prohibits inpatient hospitals with more than 16 beds — also known as institutions for mental diseases — from receiving Medicaid reimbursement, according to a Sept. 30 news release from Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy's office.
Cassidy and four other senators wrote in a letter to CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure that as the new 988 dialing code for National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is implemented, it is "critical that crisis stabilization facilities have the regulatory certainty they need to ensure access for the expected increase in demand for crisis services."
The senators said the current law, established in 1965, did not anticipate today's need for crisis stabilization programs. They are concerned that without CMS clarification, "states may feel compelled to apply the IMD exclusion to crisis stabilization programs, which would limit the availability of these programs significantly and leave vulnerable individuals experiencing mental health crises without access to necessary crisis support services."
Allowing crisis stabilization programs to provide Medicaid-funded services at facilities with more than 16 beds would increase vulnerable individuals' ability to recover from immediate mental health crises and help prevent future crises, the senators wrote.