The Senate Appropriations Committee will meet for a budget hearing with the Department of Human Services (DHS) at 10:00 am on Tuesday, March 8. The budget hearing will be livestreamed. Then, at 10:00 am Wednesday, March 9, the House Appropriations Committee will hold its hearing with DHS. That hearing will also be livestreamed.
DHS is budgeting more than $6 billion in capitation to pay for behavioral health services in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022/2023. Based on the current fiscal year’s spending, approximately 22 percent, or $1.6 billion, is budgeted to be spent for drug and alcohol, including administration fees paid to behavioral health managed care organizations, according to DHS. The $6 billion is an increase of 11 percent over the $5.4 billion budgeted for FY 2022.
The details of the budget are available in DHS’ 2022/2023 Executive Budget.
The $6 billion behavioral health budget (p. 105 of 399 in the Executive Budget) is comprised of:
- $3,897,128,323 in federal dollars;
- $2,053,063,138 in state dollars; and
- $57,038,059 in COVID funding (i.e., a portion of the temporary 10 percent increase in federal medical assistance percentage [FMAP] as part of the American Rescue Plan Act).
The FY 2022/2023 budget also includes $57 million in state dollars for the Behavioral Health Services Initiative (BHSI). BHSI includes state funds to provide treatment services to Pennsylvanians who are uninsured, do not have insurance that covers the service they need, or cannot obtain Medical Assistance benefits. Single County Authorities distribute those dollars per the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol’s Fiscal Manual, according to DHS.
The DHS Executive Budget also breaks out an $80 million line item in both FY 2021/2022 and FY 2022/2023 for the American Society of Addiction Medicine transition (See p. 101 of 399). This $80 million, $16 million of which is state dollars, is included in $6 billion behavioral health capitation budget.
RCPA will continue to update the membership on the budget as it moves toward passage in the coming months.