A new study examines the growing network of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) across the United States, which are expanding access to mental health and substance-use disorder treatment services, including crisis care. This initiative has garnered bipartisan support, with investments from the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. Mental health and substance-use disorders are critical public health issues that require comprehensive solutions.
Expanding Reach and Services
The study showed that CCBHCs are quickly spreading, and the proportion of U.S. counties and population living in a CCBHC service area increased substantially after the first were opened to patients in 2016. Through June 2024, the ratio of US population with access to behavioral health care through CCBHCs is now over 60% and nearly 40% of all American counties are now served by CCBHCs.
CCBHCs must offer an array of behavioral health services, including crisis care. The researchers also found that clinics with Medicaid bundled payments were more likely to implement new crisis services like those inpatient/institutionally-based reimbursement can support, including 24/7 call lines, mobile crisis response and crisis stabilization. This result emphasizes that the funding model used for Medicaid might be an invaluable tool to increase availability of these highly resource-intense crisis services.
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The designation of CCBHCs is a major new level of federal involvement in community behavioral health care since the Reagan years. backed by Obama, Trump and Biden administrations alike as a way to end vicarious would fundin
In 2022, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act earmarked $8.5 billion over a decade in support of CCBHCs, for example. It can also be made up of clinics itself becoming certified as CCBHCs by Medicaid or the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Expansion Grant program, illustrating the wide array of potential funders for this model.
Hierarchical Disparities and Solutions
While the researchers identified unique geographic patterns among CCBHCs, these differences may not align with political party lines. At the same time, Texas was among the first states to implement CCBHCs; other nonexpansion Democratic-led states —oriented one Cohen thinking of work growing up) such as in North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware and South Carolina—had no CCBHCs by June.
While there was a substantial investment in CCBHCs, the authors acknowledge that currently, little is still known about these clinics and their services for the populations they serve. Meeting these gaps will be instrumental in the ability of CCBHCs to meet the mental health and substance-use disorder treatment needs of communities throughout the country, especially among those individuals who are uninsured, underinsured or Medicaid.
