Evaluation of Michigan’s Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics
The 2014 Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) authorized a new demonstration program intended to improve community mental health services. In 2020, following a request from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Michigan was chosen to become a demonstration state. The state’s program was cleared to run for two years, starting on October 1, 2021. After the two-year demonstration, MDHSS would need to evaluate the program to determine whether it would be worth expanding across the state. The goal of the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) program is to increase access to, and the quality of, behavioral health services. CCBHCs must welcome all patients–regardless of their location or ability to pay for treatment. Additionally, CCBHCs must meet established criteria for enhanced care coordination, crisis response, and service delivery, and the quality of CCBHC services must be evaluated accordingly. CCBHCs must also follow certain accessibility standards including expanding service hours, utilizing telehealth, engaging in prompt intake and assessment processes, offering 24/7 crisis interventions, and following person and family-centered treatment planning and service provision. Overall, these provisions are designed make behavioral health services more accessible and equip CCBHCs to meet the needs of the community. As such, it is crucial to conduct a thorough evaluation of Michigan’s CCBHC demonstration to understand how the program has impacted behavioral health services and how the results of the demonstration can be used to create a more robust behavioral health service system in Michigan. MDHHS will spend the first year of this project developing a comprehensive evaluation design, using input from evaluators and key stakeholders from various state and national partners. Short-term expected outcomes include identifying comparison group(s):
- developing an evaluation design,
- understanding CCBHC evaluation data sources,
- and beginning data collection
Long-term outcomes include:
- completing the evaluation report
- and, consequently, making policy decisions around CCBHCs as a behavioral health service system.
The Center for Health and Research Transformation (CHRT) at the University of Michigan will partner with MDHHS on this project to provide health research, analyses, surveys, demonstration projects, backbone support, and consulting. CHRT has existing experience evaluating Medicaid programs in the state, as well as advanced knowledge of the intricacies of the public behavioral health system in Michigan; this experience will allow MDHHS to conduct a more thorough evaluation of Michigan’s CCBHC implementation and establish appropriate recommendations.