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State health department outlines Medicaid changes, behavioral-health reforms and Montana State Hospital timeline
Summary
The Department of Public Health and Human Services briefed the House Health and Human Services Committee on agency size, recent Medicaid enrollment changes, behavioral-health reforms funded by the 2023 legislature, and work to recertify the Montana State Hospital.
The Department of Public Health and Human Services told the Montana House Health and Human Services Committee it oversees nearly 3,000 employees, an approximately $7,000,000,000 biennial budget and more than 60 offices statewide, and asked lawmakers to engage with agency staff as the session proceeds.
Director Charlie Brereton said the department is focusing this biennium on behavioral-health and developmental-disability system reform, work prompted by the 2023 Legislature's appropriation of roughly $300,000,000 through House Bill 872 and the BISFID commission that produced a report of more than 20 recommendations presented to the governor in September 2024. "We stand ready to meet with you whenever you would like to meet," Brereton told the committee.
Why it matters: The funding and commission work established in 2023 frame budget and policy choices the agency will ask the Legislature to act on during the 2027…
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