CMS Plans to Overturn Medicaid Ban on Mental Health Facility Pay

The CMS may soon make it easier for states to use federal funds to pay for Medicaid enrollees to receive treatment at inpatient mental health facilities. The agency issued a letter to Medicaid directors Tuesday saying they will be able to cover an average of 30 days of care at institutions of mental disease, or IMDs, through a new waiver. In a speech shortly before the announcement, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said the Trump administration is increasingly concerned that Medicaid beneficiaries aren’t receiving critically needed care because of the IMD exclusion. “Today, we have the worst of both worlds: limited access to inpatient treatment and limited access to other options,” Azar said at the National Association of Medicaid Directors conference Tuesday. “It is the responsibility of state and federal governments together, alongside communities and families, to right this wrong.”