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Supporters cite OhioRISE results and ask Senate to maintain funding for youth behavioral health program
Summary
Community providers and advocates urged continued funding for OhioRISE, the state's specialized Medicaid program for children with complex behavioral needs, citing reductions in emergency and inpatient use and improvements in care coordination.
Multiple community behavioral health providers and statewide advocates told the committee that OhioRISE — the specialized Medicaid care‑coordination program for youth with complex behavioral health needs — is reducing emergency department visits and inpatient stays and asked that funding be preserved and expanded.
Mark Meekum, CEO of the Ohio Children's Alliance, described early results including fewer ED visits, shorter residential treatment stays and lower psychiatric hospitalizations in the program's first year. Jody Harding, chief operating officer of Talbot House, said OhioRISE helps keep children at home and out of costly out‑of‑home placements through services such as intensive home‑based treatment, respite and mobile crisis response.
Corey D'Ambrosio of Integrated Services for Behavioral Health said OhioRISE care teams connect families to services, flex funds and supports that can stabilize youth and return them to school or work; he said Integrated Services has created jobs by operating as a care management entity. Providers said OhioRISE served roughly 45,000–46,000 youth to date and that early data show reductions in ED visits and hospital utilization and shorter lengths of stay.
Speakers asked the Senate to continue funding and to allow the program to scale up treatment services and local care coordination. No formal motions or legislative actions were taken during the hearing.
