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The sustained funding of community-based mental health services, such as community residential programs, family-based support, outpatient care, and crisis intervention, are critical to the wellbeing of our constituents and our communities. Funding levels for county mental health services have direct impacts on whether these important community and family supports will be available. Yet for too many years, state funding for mental health services has lagged far behind its needs. Counties find themselves advocating for the prevention of funds being cut instead of achieving the increases that are needed to catch up from years of underfunding.

This week’s advocacy letter, which is being sent on behalf of the Coalition, stands as an open call to the PA General Assembly and stakeholders. Governor Shapiro’s budget address called for an initial $20 million investment as a starting point to creating a sustainable funding platform for county-based mental health services. These budgeted funds, if approved by the General Assembly, would represent the first increase in county-based mental health funding in more than a decade. Now is the time for action on sustaining the funding of community-based mental health services and creating the legislation to move on the allocation of the $100 million in funding, as outlined by the Pennsylvania Behavioral Health Commission.

The Coalition is open to all new partners. Join our mission of advocacy for this 2023–24 initiative and begin engaging with your representative. The Coalition will also be developing an advocacy toolkit for members in order to come together to sustain the safety net and serve those who need it most. The reality is that the demand for service far outweighs capacity and rate structures to serve this population.

If you have additional questions or would like to join the Mental Health Safety Net Coalition, please contact RCPA Policy Director Jim Sharp.

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The sustained funding of community-based mental health services, such as community residential programs, family-based support, outpatient care, and crisis intervention, are critical to the wellbeing of our constituents and our communities. Funding levels for county mental health services have direct impacts on whether these important community and family supports will be available. Yet for too many years, state funding for mental health services has lagged far behind its needs. Counties find themselves advocating for the prevention of funds being cut instead of achieving the increases that are needed to catch up from years of underfunding.

This year, RCPA and other system stakeholders once again teamed with the County Commissioner Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) through the Mental Health Safety Net Coalition. The mission and vision of this campaign continues to promote awareness of the critical funding needs of mental health services for vulnerable Pennsylvanians. As RCPA and the Mental Health Safety Net Coalition continue our efforts, we ask our members, stakeholders, and partners to join us in this collaborative effort by engaging with your legislators. “County mental health services provide a critical piece to the public safety net for people in need,” notes Richard S. Edley, PhD, President and CEO of RCPA. “The system sustained cuts over a decade ago with little relief since then. It is time to restore those dollars and further enhance the system. Not only will it provide critical funding for the individuals receiving services, but there are positive benefits — both financially and clinically — to the entire community.”

The Coalition welcomes the many new partners for this 2023–24 initiative, as the time to act is now for engaging with your representative. Local communities and providers have come together to sustain the safety net and serve those who need it most. The reality is that the demand for service far outweighs capacity and rate structures to serve this population.

View our first of many communications that will go out on behalf of the Coalition as an open call to the PA General Assembly and stakeholders. This will provide you with strategic talking points for our outreach. If you have additional questions or would like to join the Mental Health Safety Net Coalition, please contact RCPA Policy Director Jim Sharp.

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Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

RCPA, along with 285 disability service providers and associations representing disability service providers, signed onto a letter from ANCOR thanking Senator Casey for his advocacy on behalf of individuals with disabilities in the past year.

The letter states, “Thank you for your steadfast leadership in supporting the Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) program, which enables individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) to live full and independent lives in their communities.

Thank you for being a sponsor and champion of the Better Care Better Jobs Act, which would strengthen the HCBS program and address a decades-long direct care workforce crisis that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and for shining a light on the importance of home-based services through a hearing in the Senate Aging Committee this past March.

We especially appreciate your relentless efforts to include the Better Care Better Jobs Act as part of the budget reconciliation bill. Although an investment in HCBS was not ultimately included in the Inflation Reduction Act, we know that time and again you pressed Senate leadership and your fellow colleagues to support people with I/DD through inclusion of HCBS funding.”

The full letter can be accessed here.

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RCPA has signed onto a letter to Congressional leaders of the Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Committee on Finance, along with 244 other signatories, outlining the need for parity in addiction and mental health care under Medicare.

As the President’s 2023 Budget and Senate Finance Committee’s bipartisan report has highlighted, Medicare is not subject to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Parity Act). As a result, Medicare beneficiaries do not have coverage of or access to the full range of mental health and substance use disorder benefits they need, and often lose access to treatment they were receiving prior to becoming eligible for Medicare. Although Congress has eliminated disparate financial requirements for Medicare beneficiaries, Medicare still imposes both quantitative (e.g. 190-day lifetime limitation on psychiatric hospital care) and non-quantitative treatment limitations that would violate the Parity Act. Applying the Parity Act to Medicare Parts A, B, C, and D is the critical next step to make mental health and substance use disorder services available and accessible to the millions of Medicare beneficiaries in need of treatment.

Read the full letter here.

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RCPA, with several other health and human services stakeholders, has signed in support of a series of letters written by the Alliance for Low-Income Personal Care Home Advancement (ALPHA) requesting legislators’ support of Governor Wolf’s $50 million increase to state supplemental security income. This increase would work to protect low-income residents in personal care homes from losing their places of residence. You can view one of the letters sent here. Letters were addressed to leaders of both parties in both the PA House and Senate.

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Governor Tom Wolf recently responded to provider concerns over the language in the pending HealthChoices contracts as it relates to work force stoppages. The State added this language to limit service interruptions based upon an agency’s previous work stoppages. Providers raised the issue that inclusion of these provisions serves as a subsidiary policy goal of mandating health care unionization

Members can view the full response from Governor Wolf here.

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