The New York Times (4/7, Barry) reports that Idaho lawmakers last week “took the unusual step of voting to restore funding” for the assertive community treatment, which was cut in December as a cost-saving measure. The reversal comes after the deaths of four individuals who lost access to the “Medicaid-funded services that were designed to deliver medical care to people with the most disabling mental illnesses.” Republican legislators “led the charge,” citing both the deaths and a financial argument “that stripping services for severely mentally ill people will simply reroute them toward jails or emergency hospitalizations, which cost the state far more.” The lawmakers agreed to allocate “$10.4 million from state opioid and tobacco settlement funds. The amount will bring back peer support services, as well as the ACT program, for a year.” However, ACT healthcare professionals “said it could take months to revive their operations, since so many staff members changed jobs or moved when the program was defunded.”
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— The New York Times (requires login and subscription)