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Funding

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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:

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.

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The House Appropriations Committee will meet for a budget hearing with the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) at 10:00 am on Thursday, March 3. The budget hearing will be livestreamed.

For Fiscal Year 2022/23, the governor is budgeting a total of $317 million for DDAP, which is a 16 percent reduction over the current fiscal year’s budget of $379 million. The decrease is due to a $60 million reduction in federal State Opioid Response dollars.

Of the total amount budgeted from the General Fund for the upcoming fiscal year, $270 million is budgeted for grants and subsidies to drug and alcohol programs. Of those funds, 75 percent ($220 million) comes from federal grants, including:

  • SAMHSA’s Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SABG) ($80 million);
  • State Opioid Response (SOR) Grant ($118 million); and
  • Substance Abuse Special Projects Grants ($22 million).

The remaining $50 million earmarked for drug and alcohol programs in the General Fund come from the McKinsey opioid settlement ($5 million) and $45 million in state funding.

Other funds in DDAP’s budget include the Compulsive and Problem Gambling Treatment Fund ($13 million), the Medical Marijuana Program Fund ($6 million), and the State Stores Fund ($5 million).

DDAP’s budget also includes $23 million ($3 million of which is state money) earmarked for operation and administration of the department and its various grant programs. The federal grants allow for a percentage of the funds to be used for operations and administration. Operations and administration also includes the department’s complement, or staffing, and their salaries.

While most of the SABG and state funding earmarked for drug and alcohol programs are distributed through the Single County Authorities, SOR and other special grant projects are delivered typically through a grant process. Details of initiatives that these grants have funded can be found on DDAP’s Department Funding web page.

As the regulator of the state’s addiction treatment system, DDAP’s funding of drug and alcohol programs pales in comparison to the Department of Human Services’ budget for drug and alcohol services. The governor has budgeted $6 billion for behavioral health services for Medicaid capitation rates, $1.6 billion of which is earmarked for drug and alcohol.

More details of DDAP’s budget are available in DDAP’s Bluebook.

DDAP’s Senate Appropriations Hearing is set for 2:30 pm, Wednesday, March 16.

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The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is making more than $560 million in Provider Relief Fund (PRF) Phase 4 General Distribution payments to more than 4,100 providers across the country this week. Providers will receive an email notification by Thursday, February 24 if their application was among those processed in this latest batch. HRSA is working to review all remaining applications as quickly as possible.

With today’s announcement, a total of nearly $11.5 billion in PRF Phase 4 payments has now been distributed to more than 78,000 providers in all 50 states, Washington D.C., and five territories. This is in addition to HRSA’s distribution of American Rescue Plan (ARP) Rural payments, totaling nearly $7.5 billion in funding to more than 44,000 providers since November 2021.

Learn More

  • The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a press release on February 24 and an updated state-by-state table detailing all Phase 4 payments made to date.
  • As individual providers agree to the terms and conditions of Phase 4 payments, it will be reflected on the public dataset.

If you have any further questions, please contact your RCPA Policy Director.

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The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) announced more than $15 million in grant funding for stabilization payments to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment providers to assist with pandemic-related expenses.

Through 108 grant agreements, 375 SUD treatment provider locations will receive funding. Grantees span across every Pennsylvania county, and all eligible applicants who applied were awarded funding. A list of grantees and awards are available on the DDAP website. However, funding amounts will not be finalized until all grant agreements are fully executed. This funding will aid in pandemic-related expenses, including but not limited to minimizing the spread of COVID-19 by ensuring the provision of testing and support of vaccines as appropriate and delivering quality, evidence-based treatment to individuals who are underinsured or uninsured.

The grants are part of $55 million in federal funding awarded to Pennsylvania through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant Program COVID-19 Supplemental Awards.

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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 to prevent funds from being cut instead of achieving the increases that are needed to catch up from years of underfunding.

This year, RCPA and other system stakeholders have teamed with the County Commissioner Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) through the Mental Health Safety Net Coalition. We join this campaign to bring awareness of the critical funding needs of mental health services for vulnerable Pennsylvanians. 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 time to act is now for engaging with your representative, as 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. CCAP has created the following materials to assist in providing strategic talking points for our outreach:

If you have further thoughts or questions, please contact your RCPA Policy Director.

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