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President Biden's FY 2023 Budget Request Seeks Robust Investments in Mental Health and Substance Use - 3/30/22

  • 1.  President Biden's FY 2023 Budget Request Seeks Robust Investments in Mental Health and Substance Use - 3/30/22

    National Council Staff
    Posted 03-30-2022 09:21

    Dear Association Executives - President released his Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Budget Request this week. Included in this proposal are significant, robust investments in mental health and substance use disorder treatment, prevention, and recovery services.

     

    The President submits a detailed budget request to Congress annually for the next fiscal year, which runs from October 1 to September 30. This budget proposal contains estimated federal government income and spending for the next fiscal year. The purpose of the proposal is for the President to make recommendations on how the federal government should allocate funds, acting more as a messaging tool to represent the Biden-Harris Administration's goals and priorities. Congress will review the President's budget request and proposals from members of Congress as it works to write and pass the various appropriations bills that will allocate funds for the upcoming fiscal year.

     

    Key Mental Health and Substance Use-related Items Proposed:

    • Increase SAMHSA's funding to $10.13 Billion, a 35% increase from FY2022.
    • Allow all states and territories to participate in the existing Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) demonstration program.
    • Invest in the behavioral health workforce and delivery, allocating $750 million.
    • Increase the number of mental health providers serving Medicaid beneficiaries.
    • Invest in youth mental health and suicide prevention programs and in training, educational loan repayment, and scholarships that help address the shortage of mental health and substance use providers.
    • Further investments in access to crisis services through 988 and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
    • A new mandatory program, directing $413 million to Community Mental Health Centers.
    • Strengthened mental health parity protections by requiring all private health plans to cover mental health and substance use benefits, an adequate network of behavioral health providers, enforcement tools for the Department of Labor, and funds to states to enforce the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA).
    • Establish Medicaid provider capacity grants for mental health & substance use disorder treatment.
    • Expand the types of providers who can provide mental health and substance use services under Medicare.
    • Invest in services that prevent substance use disorder, expand quality evidence-based treatment, and help individuals sustain recovery.
    • Includes $663 million specific to VA's Opioid Prevention and Treatment programs.

     

    Additional CCBHC Items Included:

    • Convert existing and any new demonstration programs to a more sustainable Medicaid state plan option.
    • Maintain the demonstration's enhanced federal matching rate under the state plan option.
    • Provide states and territories that choose to participate in this program with planning grant funding.
    • Provide $553 million for the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics Expansion Grant program, with an additional $238 million during FY 2022.

     

    Please see the Health & Human Services (HHS) FY2023 Budget in Brief for additional reference. 

     

    Should you have any questions on the budget process, please contact me or our Policy Team at policy@thenationalcouncil.org.

     

    Thank you,

     

    Chuck Ingoglia
    President & CEO
    National Council for Mental Wellbeing
    Direct: (202) 684-3749

     



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    Neal Comstock
    Director of Membership
    National Council
    NealC@TheNationalCouncil.org
    202 748-8793
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