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Public Forum set for input on Medicaid’s SMI 1115 Demonstration Waiver

Providers, recipients, and other interested individuals will have the opportunity to provide input on the Alabama Medicaid Agency’s Section 1115 Institutions for Mental Disease Waiver for Serious Mental Illness (SMI) 1115(a) Demonstration program during a November public forum in Montgomery.

Comments will be taken during an open forum on Monday, November 21, at 10:30 a.m., virtually via Webex.

Join by meeting link:

https://medicaid.webex.com/medicaid/j.php?MTID=m4f95b21b0d005b148f9d4677e0270b09

Join by meeting number:

Meeting number (access code): 2596 432 4665

Meeting password: nMRhQXTM293 

The annual forum is a requirement by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for the 1115 Demonstration Waiver under which the SMI program operates. The waiver was originally approved on May 20, 2022.

The goal of the SMI Demonstration is to maintain and enhance access to mental health services and continue delivery system improvements for these services to provide more coordinated and comprehensive treatment of Medicaid recipients with SMI. This demonstration will provide the state with the authority to provide high-quality, clinically appropriate treatment to recipients with SMI while they are short-term residents in residential and inpatient treatment settings that qualify as an Institute for Mental Diseases (IMD) in Baldwin and Mobile counties. Although reimbursement is limited to this region, Medicaid recipients in need of inpatient behavioral health services will be able to access services via the IMDs participating in the demonstration, regardless of their county of residence. It will also support state efforts to enhance provider capacity and improve access to a continuum of treatments for SMI. During the demonstration period, the state seeks to achieve the following goals which align with the SMI SMDL #18-011. CMS expects the state to achieve the goals on a statewide basis despite authorizing expenditure authority on less than a statewide basis since the state will concurrently implement initiatives that improve community-based mental health care.