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County HHS committee hears budget and service priorities from health advisory groups
Summary
Advisory boards and commissions told Montgomery County councilmembers they need higher clinic reimbursements, a stronger peer-support workforce, longer bridge housing for domestic-violence survivors, and more disaggregated public-health data to reach diverse communities.
County elected officials and volunteer advisory boards pressed Montgomery County’s Health and Human Services committee on Oct. 17 for budget and policy changes to shore up safety-net health services, with repeated calls for higher clinic reimbursement rates, more peer-support funding, and better data on underserved populations.
The meeting, convened by Chair Albornoz, grouped testimony from county advisory bodies and commissions and focused on near-term priorities county leaders should consider when drafting the FY26 budget. Wayne Swan of the Montgomery Cares Advisory Board urged raising the program’s fee-for-service reimbursement "to $175 per encounter" to move closer to competitive rates and to help safety-net clinics remain solvent.
Why it matters: Council members and board leaders linked clinic funding and staffing to emergency-room strain and access to care. Chair Albornoz noted that some clinics have already had to cut staff, saying "several of those clinics have already had to let staff go," and warned that reduced clinic capacity is likely to push patients back into ERs.
Presenters also recommended expanding the peer-support workforce and investing in data. Elizabeth Nelis of the Mental Health Advisory Committee asked the council to fund increased pay and benefits for family and adult peer specialists; the committee estimated that adjustment would cost about $603,000. Speakers representing the Asian American Health Initiative urged county agencies to prioritize "disaggregated" data collection so the county can target services to smaller subgroups within the Asian-American population.
Other items raised included a push to convert one-year newcomer funding into base budget support, a request that county guidance clarify advisory boards’ authority to testify at the state level, and renewed calls to develop an active behavioral-health bed registry to track real-time capacity.
Next steps: Committee members said they will follow up with departments and the Office of Intergovernmental Relations to clarify advocacy rules for boards and asked staff to provide more detailed fiscal and operational information to inform FY26 budget decisions. The committee adjourned after scheduling follow-ups with absent programs.
