HHS awards $54.6 million in ACA mental health funding

The department of Health and Human Services announced $54.6 million in Affordable Care Act (ACA) funding to support 221 health centers in 47 states and Puerto Rico to establish or expand behavioral health services for more than 450,000 people nationwide. 

The funds will be used by health centers for hiring new mental health professionals, adding mental health and substance use disorder health services, and employing integrated models of primary care.

This is a continuation of efforts by the Obama Administration to prioritize an increase of access to mental health services.

“More young adults are receiving inpatient mental health treatment with expanded coverage under the ACA,” says John Santilli of Access Market
Intelligence, which provides market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. “The increased demand for access to mental health services uncovered a fault in the system’s ability to deliver affordable outpatient care. The Administration is working to fix that fault with the latest award.”

Currently, nearly 1,300 health centers operate more than 9,200 service delivery sites that provide care to more than 21.7 million patients in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Pacific Basin. In 2013, health centers saw over 1.2 million behavioral health
patients.