Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Dphhs Priorities topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
DPHHS director briefs House Health and Human Services on $300M behavioral-health plan, Medicaid unwinding and timeline to recertify state hospital
Summary
DPHHS Director Charlie Brereton told the House Health and Human Services Committee the department is focusing on behavioral-health reforms funded by a $300 million 2023 appropriation (House Bill 872), the Medicaid redetermination that removed about 129,000 enrollees, provider rate increases for the 2025 biennium, IT modernization and a 12–18 month timeline before the Montana State Hospital can apply for federal recertification.
Charlie Brereton, director of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, told the House Health and Human Services Committee that the agency is a statewide operation with nearly 3,000 employees and a roughly $7,000,000,000 biennial budget and outlined what he described as the department’s top priorities for the coming biennium.
Brereton highlighted behavioral health and developmental-disability reform as a top priority, pointing to the "historic $300,000,000 that the legislature cleared in 2023" and the work of the Behavioral Health System for Future Generations (BISFIG) Commission. He said the commission produced a final report with just over 20 recommendations, several of which the governor included in his 2027 biennium budget proposals, and he encouraged committee engagement as those budget conversations advance.
On Medicaid, Brereton summarized the post–public-health-emergency redetermination process. "We reviewed eligibility for nearly 330,000 Montanans," he said, and the process "resulted ultimately in a reduction of approximately 129,000 Montanans from our public assistance roles." Brereton noted enrollment as of October 2024 had returned to — and was slightly lower than — pre-pandemic levels in March 2020.
The director also described implementation of provider-rate increases adopted in the 2023 session for the 2025 biennium intended to improve access to health services across the state, and ongoing reforms of seven state-run health-care facilities, including work at the Montana State Hospital (MSH) in Warm Springs.
On MSH, Brereton said the department reclassified the facility-administrator position to require a physician so the agency could recruit a physician CEO; he introduced the hospital’s new chief executive, Dr. Kevin Flanagan. Brereton estimated that completing the complex capital and construction projects underway at MSH would take "anywhere from 12 to 18 months," after which the department expects to apply to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for federal recertification. (DPHHS lost MSH’s federal certification in 2022 and is working to regain it.)
Brereton emphasized work to strengthen the department’s data, analytics and IT systems, noting efforts to replace legacy systems and the large portfolio of IT projects that support Medicaid and other programs. He described the Medicaid-systems team (sometimes referred to as EMPATH) as responsible for the state’s most complex system and said DPHHS will provide committee members a system-by-system breakdown on questions about hosting and vendor reliance.
Brereton closed by inviting members to use the organizational materials and to reach out to program leads; he also said DPHHS expects joint work sessions with section B to coordinate budget and policy discussions.
The department provided factual details and multiple points of contact for divisions including Medicaid and Health Services, Human Services practice, Public Health and Community Affairs, and the agency’s inspector general and communications offices. Committee members asked brief follow-up questions about IT hosting and requested an acronym cheat sheet to help new members navigate terminology.
Next steps: DPHHS expects to work with the committee on BISFIG-related budgeting and on the timeline to complete capital work at MSH before applying for CMS recertification.
