To Help Close $2 Billion Budget Gap, Arizona Plans to Eliminate Behavioral Health Crisis System & Services for People Not Eligible for Medicaid

OPEN MINDS Weekly News Wire Strategic Health Care News To comply with a call from the Governor for all departments to cut 15% from their budgets, the Arizona Department of Health Services proposed eliminating behavioral health services for people not eligible for Medicaid and eliminating the state’s behavioral health crisis system. AZDHS was asked to eliminate $68.7 million in spending; by restricting public behavioral health services to people eligible for Medicaid, it estimated savings of $30.2 million. Eliminating the behavioral health crisis system would save $17.3 million. Among the state’s health and human services departments . . .