The behavioral health panel consisted of Kari Armijo, acting secretary with the Human Services Department; Alex Castillo Smith, the Human Services Department’s Deputy Secretary; and Margaret McCowen, director of the Behavioral Health Providers Association of New Mexico. Topics discussed included the 2022 $20 million dollar appropriation for children’s behavioral health services; and the Medicaid behavioral health rate increases, which Kari Armijo mentioned in her opening comments.
“You may have seen that we issued a public announcement related to those rate increases just a couple of days ago,” she said. “Those rate increases, which will take behavioral health rates up to 120% of Medicare—right now, before the increase, they’re at about 90%. So going to 120%...will be effective on July 1st.”
She said the rates were organized into three subcategories:
“You’ve got general behavioral health services, opioid treatment, and applied behavioral health analysis services receiving substantial increases. The average increase will be about 12% across all of those categories, with a total expenditure of about $33.3 million with those rate increases.”
Deputy Secretary Alex Castillo Smith also discussed a new service: the community health worker reimbursement…
“…that will allow us to reimburse community health workers; community health representatives…for tribal facilities and hospitals. And the services that they provide are really key around health education, coaching, navigation…But more importantly, is the way that those community health workers can really connect people that impact determinants of health, like housing and food assistance, that really help people connect to those resources. And so we’ll be reimbursing them for their time.”
Castillo-Smith also listed ways that the HSD was supporting the workforce, such as expanding access to supportive housing for those experiencing homelessness. She also said the HSD was seeking federal support to provide pre-release coverage to people in the justice system 30 days prior to their release.
Director of the Behavioral Health Providers Association of New Mexico Margaret McCowen expressed concern about the high turnover rate among health workers, emphasizing the need to address employee retention and dealing with administrative burden.
