University of Texas at Austin Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health’s (UT-TIEMH) national review of peer specialist training and certification programs and a recent case study report (Chapman, et al., 2018) on four states, which included Texas, found that states are increasingly using Medicaid as a source of funding for peer support services, evolving from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) block grant or state general revenue grants as the primary funding sources. In Medicaid expansion states, this funding source was reported to cover much of the cost of employing peer providers (Chapman et al., 2018). On January 1, 2019, peer support as a specific Medicaid billable service type went into effect in Texas, although Texas is not a Medicaid expansion state. The extent of use of the peer support Medicaid billing code is not yet known, given its recent implementation.
Leave a Reply