Oregon is the first state to be approved for 85% Medicaid reimbursement for mobile crisis response services. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “strongly encourages other states to follow Oregon’s model …”
- U.S. Senator Ron Wyden weighs in: “Great news: Oregon is the 1st state approved for Medicaid reimbursement of community-based mobile crisis intervention helping those w/ mental health & substance abuse battles. This was pioneered by Eugene’s @WhiteBirdClinic & I’ll keep backing similar work statewide & nationwide.”
Announcing “The Nation’s First Medicaid Mobile Crisis Intervention Services Program,” the HHS explained the import of the program:
- “The new Medicaid option gives states an opportunity to support community-based mobile crisis intervention services for individuals with Medicaid, including those who have both a mental health and substance use condition, such as opioid use… [under the program, states] “qualify for a higher federal Medicaid match of 85% for the next three years to reimburse mobile crisis services delivered to Medicaid beneficiaries.”
- “Providing immediate and appropriate care to someone in crisis not only helps reduce the possibility that they will harm themselves, but also helps reduce the need for costly inpatient services…. Too often, law enforcement must serve as mental health counselors or social workers, which takes away from their policing work. By mobilizing mental health and substance use professionals to respond to people experiencing mental health or substance use crises, this intervention eases the burden on law enforcement and allows them to do the important work of accountable policing.”
- “Oregon is the first state to seek and be granted approval for this new Medicaid option, and the Department strongly encourages other states to follow Oregon’s model of expanding access to these vital crisis care services. Helping states integrate behavioral health services into their Medicaid programs is a critical component of establishing a stronger and more sustainable crisis care continuum.”
- Portland Street Response is one of the programs that will benefit from the new Medicaid funding. In an interview with the local ABC affiliate, City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty credited the street response program, and programs like it throughout the country, with creating the conditions that sparked federal interest and support…
“We didn’t wait for the funding to be in place to start Portland Street Response because we would still be having that conversation if we did … Instead, we believed that if we were able to pilot it and prove that it was something that added value to our first responder’s system – that it would give Senator Wyden the push that he could have at the federal level, which he did. If it wasn’t for both CAHOOTS and Portland Street Response already operating on the ground, [Wyden] would never have been able to get the federal government to do their first investment of federal dollars… we were the proof that it worked.”