Texas Council supports adoption of the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) model of service delivery by the Community Center system as a strategy to improve access statewide to comprehensive community-based mental health services.
For years, lack of resources necessary to provide ready access to community-based mental health treatment resulted in extreme challenges as Texas emergency rooms, nursing homes, homeless shelters, jails, and prisons have played undue roles in addressing local mental health needs.
To alleviate these decades-old challenges, in 2007 the Texas legislature began a series of financial investments in the public mental health system, and in 2015, directed the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to pursue the emerging CCBHC model of care as a strategy to better support Texans with serious mental illness and substance addictions with the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
Recognized by CMS as an innovative model of service delivery, CCBHCs are designed to provide a comprehensive array of integrated mental health and substance addiction services using an alternative payment strategy that aligns reimbursement with the delivery of high quality, comprehensive services for complex populations.
By 2018, due in large measure to its partnership with Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) to pilot the model, HHSC affirmed the value of the CCBHC model of care and announced its plan to implement CCBHC services statewide. The federally funded 1115 Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program (background info link) was utilized as a crucial financing strategy to support implementation.
The DSRIP program officially terminated on September 30, 2021. HHSC is working on alternate financing strategies to replace the 1115 DSRIP program.
As an important part of that effort, the Directed Payment Program for Behavioral Health Services (DPP – BHS) and the Public Health Provider – Charity Care Program (PHP – CCP) have been approved as alternate financing strategies for the public mental health system. Our system is now focused on implementing these two new financing strategies, which are vital to sustaining the CCBHC model of care statewide.
The DPP – BHS is designed to draw in supplemental federal funds for the array of CCBHC behavioral health services provided for Medicaid recipients with serious mental illness. The PHP – CCP is intended to support services for low-income uninsured persons with serious mental illness.
Texas Council supports the CCBHC model of care by
- Providing technical assistance to Centers in achieving and maintaining CCBHC status
- Providing technical assistance to Centers in implementation of the DPP ‒ BHS and PHP – CCP
- Advancing public policy to improve financial sustainability opportunities and change management capacity for behavioral health providers
The CCBHC model remains vital to advancing a value-based model of care for our system. As of March 2022, all 39 Centers have achieved CCBHC status.