The Recipient Rights Conference, provided by the Office of Recipient Rights (ORR) at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), held a panel on Wednesday which gave an update on the Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Administration (BHDDA) of MDHHS. The panel discussed future BHDDA plans for expansion of community behavioral health clinics, a crisis access line, and residential behavioral health homes.
Allen Jansen, senior deputy director of BHDDA, discussed the beginning of the certified community behavioral health clinic’s (CCBHC) demonstration project. He said Michigan was approved as a demonstration state by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the demonstration will launch Oct. 1.
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) helped create this program and is championing its expansion into Michigan, said Jansen. He said the program will “increase access to a robust set of behavioral health services to a broader population with mental illness and/or substance use disorder (SUD).”
Jansen said the demonstration should last two years in 14 different sites across the state. He said the project will increase access to mobile crisis response and medically assisted addiction treatment (MAT) for all, regardless of their coverage or ability to pay. An estimated 367,000 Michiganders might be eligible to participate based on mental health and SUD diagnoses.
“[It’s] an initiative to really integrate care and provide a common set of crisis-oriented and wrap-around services that are consistent for Michiganders across at least 14 sites to get started.”
BHDDA is also working on the Michigan Crisis and Access Line (MiCAL), which will “provide immediate crisis response, get people to the right level of care, minimize unnecessary wait time, and track information to coordinate and follow-up services,” said Jansen.
Currently, MiCAL already has a robust system, but Jansen said Michigan needs to codify all of the services under one structure and coordinate with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 988 number.
Jansen also said BHDDA plans to add a “bed board”, which will provide real time information on in-patient and residential bed occupancy which will simplify transferring patients and “streamline the referral process.”
Next, Jansen said BHDDA wants to expand their two types of Medicaid “health homes”, which include Behavioral Health Homes (BHH) and Opioid Health Homes (OHH). There are currently 800 enrollees in BHH, but a proposed expansion in fiscal year 2022 would serve an additional 11,000 beneficiaries.
According to Larry Scott, director of Recovery Oriented Systems of Care at MDHHS, there are four OHH in Michigan currently and BHDDA and his office is hoping to expand homes statewide. There are currently 1,407 enrollees and prospective expansion hopes to serve 2,500 more beneficiaries.
Scott said OHHs are a “one-stop shop” to get patients experiencing SUD and opioid use disorder into a physical or specialized mental health care facility. He said they provide a “warm hand-off” to a federally qualified health center (FQHC) — which they partner with — to provide patients with the care they need. He said this system is unlike anything seen around the country.