Sen. Wyden urges strengthening behavior health services

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Senate Finance Committee chairman, recently urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to use existing authorities to protect and strengthen behavioral health services for children enrolled in Medicaid and who are in the child welfare system.

A two-year Senate investigation revealed in June exposed widespread instances of abuse and neglect of children, and a lack of behavioral health care services inside residential treatment facilities (RTFs) funded by the child welfare system and Medicaid.

The investigation probed four major RTF providers, Universal Health Services, Acadia Healthcare, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health, and Vivant Behavioral Healthcare, companies that had received billions of dollars in federal funding from Medicaid and child welfare programs.

The companies’ business model kept staff ratios low, hired workers with inadequate educational backgrounds and training, and provisioned few services to children in order to maximize margins.

“Congress must legislate to address these harmful gaps and I am hard at work drafting legislation which will include provisions to: invest in community-based alternatives for care, strengthen the oversight of congregate care facilities, and raise the floor for congregate care standards,” Wyden said in a letter to the agencies.

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