We have created a Q&A Summary of the federal government's recent announcement giving states more freedom to overcome the IMD exclusion and provide desperately needed inpatient psychiatric beds.
The IMD exclusion and Medicaid law in general can be extremely complicated and confusing. To assist in understanding this opportunity, we have created a question-and-answer document addressing some of the most common questions families might have. Stay tuned for even more information from us in the near future!
Here's a little background on the IMD exclusion...
Since the 1960s, Medicaid IMD law has prohibited such payments for adult inpatient treatment, undermining existing medical facilities and exacerbating a national bed shortage crisis – effectively denying medically necessary care. This longstanding policy has disproportionately discriminated against adults with serious mental illness, many of whom are Medicaid beneficiaries, and many of whom have suffered terrible outcomes resulting from an inability to receive timely, necessary treatment.
Both this presidential administration and the one before it have granted state waivers to permit inpatient treatment for people with substance use disorders, but people with severe mental illness were consistently left out, discriminated against simply because they were adults with a mental illness. #aBedInstead.
The United States now has fewer state psychiatric treatment beds per capita than any other time in our nation’s history. Without necessary beds, those in need of care experience delayed treatment, unnecessary crises, rampant criminalization and countless preventable tragedies. In 2016, the Treatment Advocacy Center launched our #aBedInstead campaign to bring light to this crisis and demand change.
Like most complicated regulatory reform, it will take time for meaningful change to take effect. States that decide to apply for these waivers will need to demonstrate their plans to bolster community services while integrating inpatient IMD care into their broader treatment system to better help people with serious mental illness. However, this new partnership between federal and state governments offers enormous potential to improve psychiatric care and to reign in the costs associated with neglecting those most in need.
We thank all those who dedicated their time, effort, and energy to make this happen, and we will continue to update you on as work to fix our broken mental health treatment system.