Untreated SMI – Courtesy of Pixabay
(4-15-22) Is the federal government’s Institutions for Mental Disease (IMD) Exclusion outdated and actually harming Americans with serious mental illnesses?
Leslie Carpenter, the co-founder of Iowa Mental Health Advocacy and a member of the National Shattering Silence Coalition, told a federal panel that advises Congress and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that it is.
She made her argument during the public comment session at Wednesday’s (4-13) Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee (ISMICC).
In her remarks – limited to three minutes – she explained.
“This policy was enacted in hopes of ending atrocities occurring at our large state psychiatric hospitals by prohibiting Federal Matching Medicaid funds from being used by any facility with more than sixteen beds for people with “Mental Diseases” who are aged 18 – 64. This well-intentioned policy has been a legal form of discrimination on this population of people who have brain illnesses, which are not their fault and no one chooses, and no one deserves.
“The IMD Exclusion didn’t end the atrocities, it both relocated them and worsened them. It has resulted in 169,000 people being left untreated and under-treated across our country on our streets and unsheltered…In addition, 383,000 people with serious brain illnesses are in our jails and prisons, where far too many are untreated and, in many cases, in solitary confinement.
“And many more are dying every single day. They are clearly not better off “in the community.
“The shear fact that 51% of people with Bipolar Disorders and 40% of people living with Schizophrenia are untreated, totaling 4.2 million people should shake everyone on this committee and those listening to the core.
“Representative Grace Napolitano’s bill, HR 2611, * (press release about bill below) would end the IMD Exclusion, so that federal matching Medicaid funds could be accessed for not only hospitals, but also many other facilities along the continuum of care up to and including true #HousingThatHeals. This bill now has fourteen co-sponsors and is gaining momentum.
“A recent article in Psychiatry Times is titled, “Psychiatric Care in the US: Are We Facing a Crisis?” Are you kidding me?
“We have had a humanitarian crisis for decades for people with the most serious psychiatric illnesses! Sadly, too few people know it is happening, and even fewer seem to care.
“We implore you to help us to bring this crisis both to the attention of the country and to help us to bring it to an end. It is well past time.”
Steady Decline In Beds
State hospital beds have been steadily declining since the 1960s during the deinstitutionalization era. In 1955, there were 558,922 state hospital beds. By 2005, that number had dropped to 50,509 and by 2016, the number was 37,679. According to the WHO Mental Health Atlas (2017), the median number of psychiatric beds per 100,000 population is around 50 in high income countries. According to an article in JAMA, Journal of the American Medical Association, the US has 21 psychiatric beds per 100,000 which suggests an overall moderate shortage of beds.” JAMA adds, “There is also significant variation between the 50 US states with respect to psychiatric bed numbers.”
There are many reasons why we’ve eliminated mental health crisis care beds, but the results are the same. According to Modern Healthcare, “Psychiatric patients wait disproportionately longer in emergency departments before receiving treatment and experience longer stays compared to other patients, according to reports released by the American College of Emergency Physicians…”Almost 21% (of responders) said patients wait up to two to five days for an inpatient psychiatric bed.” In some incidents, psychiatric patients are handcuffed to gurneys while waiting.
In the past, Congress has shown little interest in ending the IMD Exclusion. Former Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) tried to eliminate it when he wrote the Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act, but by the time it was signed into law during the Obama Administration as part of 21st Century Cures Act, that language had been eliminated. Democrats and groups representing individuals with lived experience argued that patients needed to be treated in community settings, not hospitals.
Sadly, what that well-intended argument misses is that when someone is experiencing a medical crisis, few community mental health providers are equipped to help them. Too often this leads to them ending up in jail.
It is encouraging that Rep. Napolitano, a California Democrat, is now pushing for an end to the IMD Exclusion, but my sources on Capitol Hill tell me there remains little interest among most of her colleagues to change the law and no interest within SAMHSA leadership. Opposition by civil rights organizations and peer groups remains high.
Rather than constantly fighting between community services and building more hospital beds, we should recognize there is a need for both. We should meet the needs of each individual based on what would best help them. Instead, we end up fighting among ourselves for table scraps.
Thank you Leslie for your public comments and your ongoing efforts to improve our system.
News release about Rep. Grace Napolitano’s bill.
Napolitano’s Increasing Behavioral Health Treatment Act Supported by LA County Board of Supervisors
April 20, 2021
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously moved to support Rep. Grace F. Napolitano’s H.R. 2611, the Increasing Behavioral Health Treatment Act. The bill would repeal the Medicaid Institutions for Mental Disease (IMD) payment prohibition and require states to submit a plan to: increase access to outpatient and community-based behavioral health care; increase availability of crisis stabilization services; and improve data sharing and coordination between physical health, mental health and addiction treatment providers and first-responders.
“Medicaid is the largest payer of mental health services in our country, and expansion of this critical coverage is long overdue,” Napolitano said. “Without in-patient beds, individuals experiencing mental health crisis are often released from emergency departments and forced to deal with their illness without professional care. They tragically too often end up in prison or on the streets, which not only worsens mental health conditions, but increases the cost of care to the state and the federal government. Providing relief from the IMD payment prohibition would finally give California and other states the ability to use federal funds to cover Medicaid-eligible individuals in need of behavioral health treatment. I thank the Board of Supervisors for supporting my legislation and recognizing that we must do all we can to provide life-saving care to any resident in need.”
“Through my motion, unanimously approved today, the Board of Supervisors will send a 5-signature letter in support of H.R. 2611, the Increasing Behavioral Health Treatment Act, introduced by Representative Grace Napolitano,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, 5th District. “This is important federal legislation that will help provide adequate inpatient or residential mental health treatment beds for individuals between the ages of 16-64 in need of critical services. I am grateful for Representative Napolitano, who shares my commitment and dedication for providing compassionate mental health care, and ensuring individuals receive the most appropriate care in the most appropriate setting.
The IMD payment prohibition is a long-standing policy that prohibits the federal government from providing Medicaid matching funds to states for services rendered to certain Medicaid-eligible individuals, age 21-64, who are patients in IMDs. The term “IMD” is defined as a hospital, nursing facility, or other institution of more than 16 beds, that is primarily engaged in providing diagnosis, treatment, or care of persons with mental diseases, including medical attention, nursing care, and related services.
“Repealing the IMD exclusion is not only necessary to address the mental health care needs of individuals requiring and deserving adequate residential services to heal, it is also an important step in resolving both the critical parity gap between physical and mental health care that continues to plague this field from a fiscal perspective, as well as the societal stigma that interferes with access to treatment at the expense of those most impacted by brain illness,” said Dr. Jonathan Sherin, Director of Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.
LA County Board of Supervisors Letter Supporting H.R. 2611
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