The Health Plans Have It!

During the last decade, the number of states that have moved to include behavioral health in their Medicaid health plan contracts has almost doubled. In 2011, only 15 (25%) states included behavioral health in their health plan contracts. And, at that time, 29 states (48%) had a primary Medicaid behavioral health carve-out.

Currently, 31 states have included behavioral health in their health plan contracts and 17 states (28%) have a primary Medicaid behavioral health carve-out (i.e., primary carve-out to a Medicaid fee-for-service or care management organization). Approximately 34.9 million (48%) of the 72 . . .