Legislation could expand mental, behavioral health crisis services

U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, last month introduced the Crisis Care Access Act to provide funding for stabilization services for people in need of access to mental health or substance abuse services.

The legislation, if eventually passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president, would offer Medicare payments for crisis stabilization to those experiencing behavioral health problems with coverage for up to 23 hours of observation and supervised care, suicide and violence risk screening and physical health assessments in a hospital or crisis facility.

The legislation could reduce the need for more extreme interventions if the right teams are put into place, she said.

“Our focus has been trying to address our behavioral health needs,” Cortez Masto told the Appeal. “From the crisis mode stabilization to the crisis and beyond, my work has been trying to fill in some of those gaps. … We don’t want police. It’s better we have intervention specialists that understand when someone is in a health crisis.”

The work builds on Cortez Masto’s effort to help fund the 988 Suicide and Crisis lifeline, aid in providing $1 billion in mental health services in schools in the Safer Communities Act and in current efforts to expand telehealth treatment for Nevada residents challenged with fentanyl and opioid use disorders. Funding will help to provide the experts who are best skilled and equipped to manage a crisis for an individual in supportive services.

“The goal is to give more resources and opening the door to support any community in Nevada that wants to create these crisis stabilization services,” Cortez Masto said. “And why that’s important is because we want to give individuals suffering acute mental health crises coming out of emergency rooms crisis intervention and focus on treating them and get focused on longterm mental stability.”