State Medicaid Behavioral Health Carve-Outs: The OPEN MINDS 2020 Annual Update

Medicaid financing of behavioral health benefits across Medicaid programs takes one of three forms: Integrated financing, traditional specialty carve-out, or vertical consumer-specific specialty carve-out. Between January 2019 and January 2020, there was very little change in the state Medicaid financing models. In recent years, efforts to integrate physical and behavioral health have stalled. But there were significant changes to behavioral health financing arrangements.

This report explores trends in behavioral health financing, numbers of individuals enrolled in each financing model, current state behavioral health financing models, and future changes to state behavioral health financing models . . .