VFA Submits Testimony in Support of Improved Access to Mental Health Care
On February 28, Voice for Adoption submitted for the record testimony in support of key reforms needed to expand mental health services to young people who have been in foster care, including those who have been placed with a permanent family. Our recommendations are below. Access the complete testimony.
Fund Post-Permanency Support Services
Congress should require and fund a core set of support services for children and families exiting foster care to a permanent family, with such services to include trauma-informed and permanency-competent mental and behavioral health services.
Improving Access for Children and Young People
Congress should maintain access to Medicaid for youth who age out of foster care up until age 26 and assure this coverage extends across state lines when a young person moves to a new state. This requirement should take effect immediately rather than in 2023 as currently written.
Congress should protect this Medicaid benefit in every state by precluding work requirements for youth who have experienced foster care.
Congress should extend access to Medicaid to children who leave foster care to adoption and guardianship, just as it extends the benefit to those who emancipate from care.
Increasing Access to Care
Congress should increase Medicaid rates to align with private insurance.
Congress should ensure that Medicaid includes coverage for family therapy, not
Congress should support the development and advancement of services sensitive to racial and cultural and other needs of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC individuals, includingensuring that Medicaid and other insurers cover them.
Congress should require Medicaid and other insurers to cover the subspecialty of therapists to include competence in child welfare and adoption.
Congress should amend the Dosha Joi Immediate Coverage for Former Foster Youth Act (S. 712) and the Expanded Coverage for Former Foster Youth Act (S. 709) to include explicit language stating that Medicaid covers individual therapy and telehealth therapy services for young people who are or were in foster care.
Congress should also support expanded telehealth options, including allowing reimbursement to providers in other states, maintaining equal reimbursement rates for telehealth and in-person visits, and setting national standards for telehealth services.
Congress should increase the Federal Match Assistance Percentage (FMAP) rate for all children’s mental health and supportive services provided under the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) entitlement, covering all children under the age of 21 in all states and territories. In addition, Congress should expand access to these services for children and youth in foster care and who have exited care to adoption and guardianship while ensuring that such services are adoption/permanency-competent for this population.
Congress should refine language in the Timely Mental Health for Foster Youth Act (S. 3625) to mandate all jurisdictions to participate and require an additional mental health screening by trauma-informed professionals conducted 60 days before youth exit care to permanency or due to emancipation. Ensure that professionals work with families or young people to arrange for services to address any needs identified.
Congress should mandate that the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) measure outcomes for healing and trauma through a qualitative question that addresses how to best support youth with their mental health and healing needs.
Ensuring Parity
Congress should ensure that all health insurance provides true parity for mental and behavioral health services in all health insurance plans. Congress should holdmore hearings, issue state report cards, and direct HHS to craft model state laws to reach parity.
