Governor Hochul’s executive budget includes a number of historic proposals that are intended to reform New York’s mental health system. We applaud her inspiring and hopeful vision. But, unless more funding is provided to the state’s network of mental health and substance abuse disorder agencies, her vision will not be realized because of the devastating workforce shortages and out of control expenses that continue to plague community-based providers. The budget’s proposed 2.5% COLA for mental health and substance use disorder agencies is just not enough.

The entire human services sector requested an 8.5% COLA. The NYS Council’s members—the state’s mental health and substance use disorder providers—continue to experience a devastating one-two punch. We are unable to recruit or retain staff due to inadequate salaries. This, coupled with skyrocketing expenses for basics such as utilities, food, gasoline, maintenance, and insurance, has left our agencies behind the eight ball. Our agencies are depleted and considering consolidation or closure at precisely the moment when we should be vastly expanding access to care across New York. Some of the Governor’s proposals intend to do just that, but we can’t make it happen without staff, or the ability to pay our bills.

The NYS Council is also concerned that the executive budget appears to rely heavily on Opioid Settlement funds to address the needs of New Yorkers with substance use disorder/addictions, and the agencies that serve them. New York should be making new investments in the substance use disorder continuum of care to address the needs of our local communities where opioid and other substance-related deaths of despair are devastating our local communities.

We look forward to working with the NYS Legislature as they develop their budgets, and we remain hopeful that the people who need our services will be able to receive them.

The NYS Council thanks Governor Hochul for responding in her State of the State proposals to our request to expand the federal CCBHC Demo in NY from 13 to 39 CCBHCs.  The 13 clinics have produced extraordinary outcomes, reducing ED and inpatient usage by 20-30% for the people they serve. In addition, by participating in the demonstration, New York has received increased federal Medicaid revenue for every CCBHC visit.

The federal government is very supportive of states expanding the CCBHC Demonstration Program, to bring a far better model of behavioral healthcare to scale and do it while reducing the state’s spending on Medicaid. And recently, CMS agreed to allow states like NY that already participate in the federal demonstration program, to expand the number of agencies participating in the demo program.

Statewide expansion of the CCBHC Demo across New York can and should be viewed as a cost savings initiative. The bigger the expansion, the bigger the savings for NYS according to a recent Financial Analysis (LINK HERE) the NYS Council commissioned from Health Management Associates (HMA) where actuaries found that New York State experienced a significant return on its modest investment in the CCBHC Demonstration Program, and that vast expansion makes sense not only for the individuals we serve, but for New York State taxpayers as well.