WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking
Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human
Services, Education, and Related Agencies, today announced that West Virginia
was one of 15 states selected to receive a $1,000,000, one-year Certified
Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) planning grant from the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA).
In 2024, up to 10 of the 15
states selected will participate in the CCBHC Medicaid demonstration program
and receive enhanced Medicaid reimbursement. The funding for the expansion of
the CCBHC demonstration
program was authorized by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) to help address the country’s mental health
crisis.
“In recent years, our country
and state has faced an unprecedented surge of substance use deaths, fueled by
extraordinarily deadly drugs like illicit fentanyl,” Ranking Member Capito said. “Grants like these play a crucial role
in supporting local recovery centers and ensuring they have the resources they
need to help pull struggling West Virginians out of the suffocating grip of
addiction. As we battle the opioid epidemic, I will continue to advocate for
our state, listen to the issues and experiences that people are facing, and
deliver the resources we need.”
BACKGROUND:
CCBHCs were created to
transform mental health and substance use treatment across the country and
provide sustainable funding for robust community outpatient mental health
treatment. The full CCBHC demonstration program provides reimbursement through
Medicaid for the full cost of services that CCBHCs provide, at higher, more
competitive rates than community mental health centers previously received.
This sustainable funding also ensures they can provide a more comprehensive
range of services rather than fragmented services driven by billing codes.
Funding for
the CCBHC state planning grants was authorized by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA)
in 2022 to address the country’s mental health crisis. CCBHCs provide crisis
services that are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and serve anyone who
requests care for mental health or substance use, regardless of their ability
to pay. This expansion of CCBHCs builds on the previous efforts to launch the
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which
Senator Capito supported, and further builds the crisis continuum of care.
Learn more here.
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