Georgia behavioral health chief warns state faces inpatient bed ‘cliff’ as forensic backlog grows

Kevin Tanner, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD), told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services that the state is expanding crisis, forensic and transitional capacity but is approaching a point when hospital beds for people who need competency restoration or forensic treatment will be exhausted.

Tanner said statewide budget changes proposed by the governor and Office of Planning and Budget would annualize several recent investments, including a new Macon Crisis Stabilization Diagnostic Center and funding to implement a long‑overdue provider rate study, and that those and other additions will both relieve pressure and require ongoing appropriation. He described several one‑time and annualized requests in the agency budget, including funds to annualize a rate increase (about $26.7 million additional on top of $107 million estimated total annual cost), $3.1 million tied to the Macon facility, and operating dollars for new beds opened or planned at facilities in Milledgeville, Columbus and Atlanta.