On the heels of mental healthcare budget increases in states including New York and South Dakota, Maryland legislators have proposed bills to improve the state's behavioral healthcare services, Maryland Matters reported Feb. 20.
The seven-bill plan proposed by state senators is intended to improve access to treatment and modernize the mental healthcare system, according to the news site.
Here is an overview of what the seven bills propose:
- Allocating $12 million annually to the state's suicide hotline.
- Requiring the Maryland Department of Health to expand access to and provide reimbursement for mental health services provided in accordance with the collaborative care model, which integrates behavioral health and primary care services.
- Expanding access to and providing reimbursement for home and community-based mental health case management of at-risk youths.
- Establishing community behavioral health clinics.
- Incorporating audio-only telephone appointments as telehealth services to ensure coverage by medical assistance programs, insurers and health services plans.
- Creating a value-based behavioral healthcare treatment model and requiring the governor to invest $600,000 into the plan from fiscal years 2025 to 2027.
- Establishing a task force to make recommendations to residents on how to access appropriate and comprehensive mental health services.
"We know this has been a policy issue for decades, and frankly long before any of us got here, and in some cases before any of us were born,” Senate President Bill Ferguson said at a Feb. 17 meeting introducing the bills. "In this post-pandemic period, we are going to do what it takes in Maryland to create a world-class mental healthcare system."
The state Senate Finance Committee already approved the bill funding the suicide hotline, according to Maryland Matters. The legislators have held hearings on three of the bills and hearings for the other three are scheduled in the next few weeks.