Mental health funding at risk in Senate bill
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A provision in expansive Senate Bill 4 would remove the requirement that counties provide property tax funding to community mental health centers (CMHC).
Why it matters: The 24 centers cover all 92 counties — providing inpatient and outpatient treatment, crisis and substance abuse services and more — and make up the backbone of the state's behavioral health system.
- Advocates worry this change could result in less funding for CMHCs and reverse recent progress made on improving access to mental health care.
State of play: Sen. Chris Garten (R-Charlestown) said making property tax funding for the centers optional would give counties more flexibility in how they fund those services.
- Several senators, including some Republicans, said the overarching bill, which includes other tax and fiscal oversight issues, was too important to kill in committee but they could vote against it if the CMHC provision wasn't fixed on the floor.
- It passed the Senate's appropriations committee 8-5.
What they're saying: "We aren't Starbucks," said Beth Keeney, president and CEO of LifeSpring Health System, the CMHC for 11 counties in southern Indiana. "When our costs go up, we can't just charge more. We get paid the Medicaid reimbursement rate."
- More than 80% of CMHC patients are on Medicaid, according to the Indiana Council of Community Mental Health Centers.
- Keeney said because Indiana has not made a meaningful increase in the reimbursement rate in decades, the more than $50 million county-provided property tax dollars fill an important funding gap statewide.
The latest: A change made Thursday would delay the change by two years, which Keeney said is appreciated, but doesn't address the underlying concerns about the loss of funding.
What we're watching: Second reading amendments, the next chance to change the bill.
- That could happen as early as Monday.