FY2024 Annual Report

13 NJAMHAA Annual Report FY 2024 The second minibus, Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, was signed on March 23rd. Overall, funding levels for mental health and substance use priorities largely saw level funding from FY2023, though the Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration technical assistance program and 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline programs both saw modest funding increases. Other notable items in this package, all of which were level funded from FY2023, include: In addition to advocating for significant federal funding, NJAMHAA is constantly working at the federal level to impact laws and regulatory rules. Successes realized at the federal level this fiscal year include: NJAMHAA’s advocacy never pauses. Serving as State Captain for this year’s National Council for Mental Wellbeing Hill Day in June, NJAMHAA’s Senior Health Policy Analyst Mary Abrams joined members from across the state to meet with New Jersey’s Congressional Delegation to promote funding for block grants, CCBHCs, electronic health records, the workforce and more, as well as specific legislation that supports the behavioral health field and those it serves. $385 million for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics $ 986 million for the Mental Health Block Grant, which includes maintaining the existing 5% of the total set-aside for evidence-based crisis care programs $1.929 billion for Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grants E stablishing a new Medicare benefit category for Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) and Mental Health Counselor (MHC) services furnished by and directly billed by MFTs and MHCs M aking permanent the provision for all patients to continue to receive behavioral health telehealth services wherever they are located, with no originating site requirements A new focus on parity enforcement with proposed changes from several federal departments under review by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which then sought comments on parity enforcement — which NJAMHAA submitted on several occasions “ NJAMHAA has played an important part in ensuring that we have financial support for the work that we do. They have been a tremendous advocate, going before the legislators and the Governor’s office. ” Brigitte Johnson, Esq. Board Member, NJAMHAA and the New Jersey Mental Health Institute President and CEO CarePlus NJ $1.575 billion for State Opioid Response Grants $153 million for the Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program, including $40 million for the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program