Commissioner Moyer proposes county pilot using Medicaid long-term care to keep people with severe mental illness housed

Commissioner Moyer presented a proposal asking the board to pursue a state-funded pilot that would use Medicaid long-term care eligibility and case management to help people with severe persistent mental illness (SPMI) remain housed and reduce costly use of hospitals, jails and state psychiatric beds.

"I am proposing that we seize on this moment of opportunity and do strategic field based eligibility work and case management so that we're maximizing Medicaid long term care services to help people stay successfully well in community," Moyer said. The commissioner framed the pilot as targeted, field-focused outreach to enroll people who are currently unhoused and who meet the disability and impairment thresholds for Medicaid long-term services.

Why this matters: Moyer and staff argued that many people with severe behavioral-health disabilities are cycling through expensive public systems—emergency departments, jails, inpatient…