NJAMHAA-FY23-Annual-Report

8 Breaking Barriers in Behavioral Health Care State Budget Wins and Advocacy Among the many wins in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget (which ends June 30, 2023), NJAMHAA advocacy directly led to the inclusion of the following items: • $27 million in state funds (with a $12 million federal match) for a total of $39 million in wage increases for all Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) contracted community-based providers of mental health and substance use treatment applied to both contracts and rates. NJAMHAA’s advocacy, and work with DMHAS as they reviewed current entry-level wages, directly led to these appropriations. The new funds cover years of state minimum wage increases for which providers had not previously been reimbursed. • NJAMHAA’s relentless advocacy directly led to $1.7 million of state funding plus $2.9 million in federal matching funds for increases to the children’s psychiatric assessment, outpatient and partial care rates. These three programs, which have rates that are not the sole purview of the Department of Children and Families, were not included in the Department’s rate increases initiated in previous years. The children’s psychiatric assessment rate was raised from $130 to match the adult rate of $438. • $1.5 million for a grant program for screening centers to expand their mobile outreach/satellite services. The grant program, signed into law in January 2020, and this funding were direct results of NJAMHAA requests and advocacy. • While the $5 million increase to the Office of School Linked Services in the Governor’s FY2023 budget did not get distributed to School Based Youth Services Programs (SBYSPs), there was a $1 million legislative add for SBYSPs, importantly, with budget language ensuring these funds were dedicated to those programs.