On March 29, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee released a report entitled Mental Health Care in the United States: The Case for Federal Action. The 36-page report was jointly authored by majority and minority committee staff, and provides a summary of issues raised during the two committee hearings held this past February on youth mental health (Part 1 and Part 2), as well as responses to the committee’s Request for Information (RFI) made last September.  

The report highlighted many of the recommendations outlined in NACo’s response to the RFI, including:

• Strengthening the behavioral workforce by incentivizing the recruitment, training and placement of behavioral health providers, particularly in rural areas
• Providing resources that remove barriers and increase the use of substance use disorder (SUD) drug therapies across a variety of provider settings
• Improving access to crisis intervention services through the expansion of evidence-based crisis intervention models like Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs)

Despite not being specifically mentioned in the report, NACo is also supportive of removing barriers to treatment and services that are caused by federal Medicaid exclusion policies like the Medicaid Institutions for Mental Disease (IMD) and the Medicaid Inmate Exclusion Policy (MIEP), which restrict the use of Medicaid for behavioral health services provided in jails and certain inpatient settings.

The full report can be found here. This report marks the Finance Committee’s next step in their effort to craft a bipartisan legislative package on behavioral health, which the committee intends to consider this summer. NACo will continue to work collaboratively with the committee to advance policy that will improve and increase access to mental and behavioral health services for county residents.

Additional Resources

• NACo Blog: NACo submits behavioral health care policy recommendations to U.S. Senate Finance Committee  
• NACo Blog: President Biden announces strategy to address the national mental health crisis
• NACo Blog: House introduces bipartisan bill to support implementation of national 988 suicide lifeline