Tanzi and DiMario get it done
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| Sen. DiMario (left) and Rep. Teresa Tanzi (right) with Charlestown's state Rep. Tina Spears. All three are being targeted by the MAGA PAC, League of Rhode Island Businesses |
The bill was part of the Senate’s 17-bill package of healthcare legislation.
“Mobile crisis response is an essential component of our
state’s healthcare system, and providing insurance coverage for youth mobile
crisis response last year was an important step toward ensuring the
sustainability of these essential services,” said Senator DiMario (D-Dist. 36,
Narragansett, North Kingstown, New Shoreham), who works as a licensed mental
health counselor in private practice. “But without sustainable rates, the
nonprofits that provide these essential prevention and diversion programs cannot
continue, whether their services are covered or not. This bill gives providers
across Rhode Island the consistency and financial stability they need by
ensuring that they receive at least the state Medicaid rate for the services
they provide.”
Youth mobile crisis response and stabilization services
(MRSS) provide trained behavioral health clinicians in response to behavioral
health crisis calls, who are better able than local emergency medical services
to deescalate crises and provide the crisis counseling and follow-up needed to
keep youth out of emergency rooms. This provides better patient outcomes for
youth in crisis and reduces the strain on overburdened emergency departments.
“Rhode Island, like the rest of the country, is experiencing a youth behavioral health crisis. Families are struggling to find help when a child is in distress and our emergency rooms are often overwhelmed by behavioral health cases that could be addressed more effectively in the community,” said Representative Tanzi (D-Dist. 34, South Kingstown, Narragansett). “Mobile crisis response services have proven to be one of the most effective solutions we have to this crisis in Rhode Island, providing better care for children and their families while saving insurers and the state money. Despite its success, the current system has a structural problem. Medicaid is carrying the financial burden of these services because commercial insurers are not reimbursing at the same sustainable rates as Medicaid. By setting a payment floor for these services, this legislation will stabilize a system that we know works.”
The Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human
Services began a MRSS pilot program in November 2022, during which 92% of youth were stabilized and diverted from local
emergency departments.
Medicaid now covers youth MRSS in Rhode Island, and last
year Senator DiMario successfully passed legislation to require private
insurers to do the same. However, reimbursement rates provided by private
insurers since then are often too low to sustainably fund MRSS programs.
The legislation (2026-S 3065A, 2026-H 7630A) sets a reimbursement floor by requiring
private insurers to reimburse youth MRSS services at no lower than the
prevailing Medicaid rate set by the Executive Office of Health and Human
Services.
It also expands youth eligibility from 18 up to 21 years
old.
The legislation received unanimously supportive testimony in
committee, including from the Washington County Coalition for Children, who
wrote “By requiring commercial insurers to cover MRSS and reimburse providers
at no less than the Medicaid rate, this bill creates parity across payers and
prevents the burden of funding these essential services from falling
disproportionately on Medicaid and state resources. Without this alignment,
providers cannot sustain the staffing and infrastructure required to deliver
24/7 mobile crisis response.”
