OhioRISE panel: state officials, providers and families describe expanded children’s behavioral health system and remaining challenges

Maureen Corcoran, director of the Ohio Department of Medicaid, told the Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee that OhioRISE launched on July 1, 2022, and is a specialty managed-care program that sits alongside traditional Medicaid plans to provide intensive behavioral health services to children with complex needs.

Why it matters: OhioRISE centralizes a set of high-intensity supports — care coordination, intensive home‑based treatment, mobile response stabilization, psychiatric residential treatment facilities, and behavioral health respite — under one statewide specialty plan so children do not need to leave their communities for care.

Corcoran summarized the program’s structure and goals, saying OhioRISE functions like a “specialty managed care plan” that coordinates with each child’s regular medical managed care plan and a single pharmacy benefit manager. She described the program as still in its early stages, noting, “we are at the toddler stage,” and pointed to recent service expansion and partnerships intended to make specialty services accessible statewide.

Leanne Kornyan, director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, described OhioRISE as part of a broader system-of-care approach, emphasizing that some specialty services were incubated by her agency before being funded through OhioRISE. Kornyan told the committee that mobile response and stabilization services (MRSS) — a rapid in-person crisis response with up to 42 days of follow-up — completed more than 38,000 referrals in state fiscal year 2024 and, she said, “reduced short term respite or crisis…