SENATOR MAHER LAUDS LEGISLATIVE RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY TRANSFORMING CHILDREN’S BEHAVIORAL HEALTH COMMITTEE

Following 18 months of dedicated work toward improving the lives and health of children throughout Connecticut, State Senator Ceci Maher (D-Wilton), Senate Chair of the Committee on Children, lauded the legislative recommendations made this week by the Transforming Children’s Behavioral Health Policy and Planning Committee.

The TCB Committee, in short, was formed in 2023 to evaluate the availability and efficacy of prevention, early intervention and behavioral health treatment services in Connecticut for children from birth to 18, tasked with making recommendations to the General Assembly regarding how the systems can be improved. Behavioral health includes mental health, substance use disorders and overall psychological well-being under the committee’s purview.

“For nearly two years, the inspiring and hardworking members of the TCB Committee have delved into our state’s current programs and offerings in support of children’s behavioral health to find ways we can better deliver this aid more efficiently,” said Sen. Maher. “I’m heartened that we have achieved these recommendations that, if implemented, will connect more children and families in need with opportunities to receive support when they need it most, and I look forward to these steps leading to better overall care in years to come.”

Final recommendations offered by the TCB Committee include:

Medicaid

-Increasing Children’s Medicaid behavioral health reimbursement rates based on patient access needs, specifically seeking to meet benchmarks set by peer states providing similar services.

-Having the Department of Social Services conduct a Medicaid Rate Study specifically focusing on children’s behavioral health, determining the breakdown of spending on children’s behavioral health and evaluating the state’s progress over time compared to others.

-Supporting expansion of mobile crisis centers through the Department of Children and Families that were initially funded through the American Rescue Plan Act.

Workforce Stabilization

-DSS should conduct feasibility tests and fiscal analysis to see whether adding billing codes can help offset costs for on-boarding and training clinical staff in evidence-based models before they can bill for services.

-DSS should, as part of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic planning and designing, grant development of separately payable care coordination service, value-based payment models and navigation support to improve children’s outcomes

-DSS and other professionals should review design levels of the Intensive In Home Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Services at the Yale Child Study Center. Contracting with their Model Development and Operations, they should determine potential additional federal funding and reimbursements may be available as an evidence-based practice treatment program and conduct a randomized controlled trial to qualify IICAPS federally.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

-Amending the state’s general statutes to increase the age of insurance coverage of applied behavior analysis from 21 to 26; a person with Autism can receive all other services for life, but behavior therapy can be restricted in adulthood after turning 21 due to current statutes.

Continuum of Crisis Services Study

-TCB should conduct a study to review the current use and anticipated demand of the children’s behavioral health crisis continuum, including 211/988, mobile crisis centers, urgent crisis centers, sub-acute crisis stabilization and emergency departments to assess optimal capacity utilization and decisions for utilized services.

School-Based Health Center Study

-All school-based health centers should establish comprehensive reporting to better inform targets for investment; TCB should also study these centers for improved data collection and improve Medicaid and private insurance reimbursement when necessary.

School Health Services

-Medicaid and private insurance billing codes should be reviewed to ensure non-duplicative billing and ensure reimbursement for services can be fully claimed.