Illinois hopes to address shortage of behavioral healthcare providers with new program

Illinois hopes to address shortage of behavioral healthcare providers with new program

[Music] Illinois has a significant shortage of providers for mental health care and substance use treatment well wd’s Mike millit reports tonight the work lawmakers are doing to recruit and retrain more of these critical workers medic reimbursement rates in Illinois only cover roughly 50% of the cost of Behavioral Healthcare lawmakers say the cost of hiring and keeping these providers has risen dramatically in recent years due to the short supply of qualified people the covid-19 pandemic and increased need for treatment then you layer Medicaid Managed Care on top of that so the providers we’re talking about like Centerstone who are trying to employ psychiatrists and lcsws and certified alcohol and drug counselors are really constrained with the amount of dollars they are able to pay their staff this plan could provide up to $200,000 in grant funding to community behavioral healthcare clinics to support their providers Advocates would also like to reimburse costs associated with American Sign Language and foreign language interpreting services and both mental health and substance use treatment programs across the state this could be a Medicaid match uh we wouldn’t see the American Sign Language foreign interpretation Services as a grant uh funded opportunity if it is Medicaid match uh we very much believe that the state should receive those the benefit of the federal match feldo Department of Human Services would be responsible for administering the grant program despite concerns from some Republican lawmakers that puts a lot of administrative burden on already burdened agencies so um I do have a little bit of concern about um putting additional burdens on agencies by going through that that process particularly the small organizations reporting in Springfield Mike Mage WD news well this plan passed out of the house mental health and addiction committee on a partisan 14 to5 vote although representative Lindsay Le Point plans to file an amendment to specifically detail how much money each type of Provider could receive through the grants

Illinois has a significant shortage of providers for mental healthcare and substance use treatment. State lawmakers hope to create a grant program to help recruit and retain these critical workers.