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Advisory committee approves new weight for graduate behavioral-health instruction, cites $8.7M estimate
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Summary
The Health-Related Institutions Formula Advisory Committee voted to recommend a 2.075 instructional weight for graduate behavioral-health programs, which staff estimated would cost about $8.7 million; the recommendation will be incorporated into the committee's final report and finalized by an email vote.
The Health-Related Institutions Formula Advisory Committee on Zoom approved a recommendation to add a 2.075 instructional-and-operational weight for graduate behavioral-health programs, a change staff said would carry an estimated cost of about $8.7 million.
Committee chair Kristen Mace turned discussion to Charge 2b, which asked the work group to study appropriate I&O formula weights for specialty programs. Staff member Melita summarized institutional responses and told the group, "we did receive responses from everyone; six HRIs provided data for behavioral health hours, and the estimated cost would be $8,700,000." The committee's methodology lead said the work group used existing cost-study ratios comparing psychiatric/behavioral-health program costs to graduate nursing and allied-health programs and "backed into" the recommended weight, adding, "I believe it was 2.075." He showed per-student illustrative figures (behavioral health ~$24,100; graduate nursing ~$17,500) that produced the derived weight.
Why it matters: instructional- and operations-formula weights determine how state formula funding allocates per-student dollars across specialty programs. Committee members said the proposed weight is intended to reflect higher per-student training costs in behavioral-health programs; the committee approved the recommendation by voice vote and instructed coordinating-board staff to incorporate it into the final advisory report.
The committee also discussed the optometry recommendation (to fund optometry similarly to programs in the GAI formula but pursue cost-based adjustments modeled on VETMed) and general report housekeeping. Mace said a draft final report sent Dec. 19 includes the recommendations approved so far and that executive-summary data points were drawn from the AAMC and the U.S. Census Bureau. Members proposed rounding formula-rate changes to a single decimal place for readability; staff was authorized to make minor non-substantive edits and formatting adjustments for publication.
Votes at a glance: • Approval of recommended behavioral-health weight (recommended 2.075; estimated cost ~$8,700,000): approved by voice vote. • Approval of Dec. 3 meeting minutes with amendment to include a note about considering "hold-harmless" language for mission-specific performance-based research funding: approved by voice vote.
Next steps: The committee agreed to accept edits to the draft report by email, requested members return suggested edits by Jan. 14, and penciled in a potential follow-up meeting Jan. 20 or 21 if further discussion is needed. The final report will be submitted later in the month after the email vote, unless members ask to convene an additional meeting.
Direct quotes from the meeting included Melita's summary that "the estimated cost would be $8,700,000," the methodology lead's note that "I believe it was 2.075," and the chair's procedural instruction that staff may make "minor non-substantive edits" to the report for publication. The committee adjourned after completing business.
