A state commission will spend the next year working to overhaul Montana’s behavioral health and disability services system. The state health department is starting with research.
Advocates and experts in behavioral health have described the state’s systems for care as crumbling that got worse after the state made deep cuts to its budget for services in 2017.
During the 2023 legislative session, Montana lawmakers leveraged strong finances to try to fill the gaping holes in mental health and disability care. That included increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates for providers and creating the commission tasked with rebuilding the system itself.
The most recent legislature also tasked the state commission to look at long-term fixes for industry.
Matt Kuntz, director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, asked members of the commission Thursday to develop ideas that policymakers can get behind decades down the road.
“Please, as you're building this out, remember it's going to be a long hard fight for this stuff,” Kuntz said.
The state health department has already contracted a study of what it would look like to open regional care facilities around the state and decrease reliance on the state hospital in Warm Springs. Guidehouse, a consulting firm that completed a $2 million study of Medicaid provider rates in 2022, is conducting that research.
The health department is also now taking bids from contractors who can help the state design new behavioral health and disability service systems. A budget for that contract is not yet available.
The commission aims to use that information to create recommendations for Gov. Greg Gianforte by July 1, 2024. Its next meeting is in September.
