Biden administration awards $15 million for mobile crisis intervention

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services awarded $15 million in planning grants to 20 states to support expanding community‐based mobile crisis intervention services for Medicaid beneficiaries, according to a Sept. 20 CMS news release. By connecting people who are experiencing a mental health or substance use disorder crisis to a behavioral health specialist or critical treatment, these services — which will be provided by funding from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and will be available 24 hours per day, every day of the year — can help save lives. Importantly, these services can also help to reduce the reliance on law enforcement when people are experiencing a behavioral health crisis and, in turn, may help to prevent the unnecessary incarceration of people with serious mental illness or substance use disorders. The planning grants — funded by the ARP — provide financial resources for state Medicaid agencies to assess community needs and develop programs to bring crisis intervention services directly to individuals who are experiencing a substance use–related or mental health crisis outside a hospital or facility setting. These grants will help states integrate community‐based mobile crisis intervention services into their Medicaid programs, a critical component of establishing a sustainable and public health– focused crisis support network.