NJAMHAA FY23 Advocacy Campaign

Investment Is Needed to Improve Timely Access to Integrated Care Various investments must be made to facilitate community-based behavioral health providers’ provision of accessible, individualized, integrated care. These include funding for electronic health record (EHR) systems and capital improvements, and reinstating a 70+ year exemption for vehicle registration fees for non-profits. CARE COORDINATION Critical to providing whole-person, comprehensive care while avoiding duplication of effort are interoperable EHRs. Advanced EHRs enable care teams to access information on all those served, including the status of medications, history and whether they have been hospitalized. In those cases, care teams can help to make transitions back to the community and ensure appropriate services are not only available, but also accessed, after discharge. Both federal and state incentives are available to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment providers for implementing and upgrading EHR systems. Providers of mental health services have been overlooked at both levels. Appropriations are needed to ensure all New Jersey community providers are properly equipped with this most essential tool to provide the care coordination New Jerseyans deserve. PRIMARY CARE INTEGRATION Community behavioral health providers should also be supported with capital investments for facilities to be able to bring primary medical care to the diverse people they serve. Individuals with mental health and SUD experience an inordinate number of serious comorbidities. Outcomes for these “high utilizers”, that small proportion of individuals using the greatest amount of health care and the state’s fiscal resources, are positively impacted when primary health care can readily be coordinated and delivered by behavioral health providers serving this population. ACCESSIBILITY A great number of programs include transportation services to ensure individuals can keep their appointments. For more than 70 years, provider vehicles were exempt from registration fees. Following a reinterpretation of a long-standing statute, this exemption was taken away in 2017, which has resulted in unexpected costs, particularly for providers with large fleets. Correcting this costly mistake is long overdue. 13 H   A staggering 43% of U.S. adults who say they needed substance use or mental health care in the past 12 months did not receive that care. Harris Poll on behalf of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, May 31, 2022 43%