WASHINGTON—  Last week, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), the creator of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, announced that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has selected 15 new states who will each receive $1 million to develop plans to participate in the CCBHC initiative. Out of the 15 states, 10 states will be chosen in 2024 to receive full funding for comprehensive mental health and addiction services.

With the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which provided $8.5 billion to support the nationwide expansion of Stabenow’s initiative, all states and the District of Columbia became eligible to submit applications to participate. 

The 15 states selected are Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia. 

Michigan, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Oregon are already receiving full funding for comprehensive mental health and addiction services.  

This comes days after President Biden announced $20 billion in his budget to permanently expand Senator Stabenow’s mental health and addiction services nationwide.   

“Our behavioral health initiative is a proven success story and is transforming mental health and addiction treatment across our country. With the support of the Biden-Harris Administration, now more states are able to join and make sure health care above the neck is funded the same way as health care below the neck. Help through our highly successful clinics will begin to reach people in every corner of our country,” said Senator Stabenow. 

“Today’s announcement of grants for 15 more states provides an important new opportunity to improve access to care and strengthen the crisis care system for millions more people and address a crippling workforce shortage,” National Council for Mental Wellbeing President and CEO Chuck Ingoglia said. “The CCBHC model represents our nation’s best response to the ongoing mental health and substance use crises, and we’re thankful for the bipartisan support that allows for CCBHC expansion.” 

These Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics are transforming community care by setting high-quality standards of care and then funding mental health and addiction services as health care through Medicaid. This is the same successful structure used for federally qualified health centers.  

In order to receive enhanced Medicaid funding, the clinics are required to 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 disorder, regardless of their ability to pay. Other high-quality services are required as well, including outpatient mental health and substance use disorder treatment services; immediate screenings, risk assessments, and diagnoses; and care coordination including partnerships with emergency rooms, law enforcement, and veterans’ groups. 

The Department of Health and Human Services found that people who receive care at these clinics had:

• 74% reduction in hospitalization
• 68% reduction in visits to the emergency room
• 33% decrease in homelessness 

Also, 84% of these clinics either already provide direct services on-site at elementary, middle, and high schools or plan to in the future. 

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