#Addiction Treatment Center Montana

[bearcreekwellnesscenter]

Bear Creek Wellness Center offers compassionate and comprehensive alcohol addiction treatment in Montana. Our evidence-based therapies and supportive environment help individuals overcome addiction and regain control of their lives. Discover a path to lasting recovery with our expert team.

Bear Creek Wellness Center 122 Indian Prairie Loop, Stevensville, MT 59870 (888) 616–5123

My Official Website: https://bearcreekwellness.com/ Google Plus Listing: https://www.google.com/maps?cid=4709221083542565430

Our Other Links:

Alcohol Detox Program Montana: https://bearcreekwellness.com/programs/montana-drug-alcohol-detox/ Residential Treatment in Montana: https://bearcreekwellness.com/programs/inpatient-residential-treatment/ Inpatient Treatment Montana: https://bearcreekwellness.com/inpatient-rehab-treatment-montana/ Dual Diagnosis Treatment Montana: https://bearcreekwellness.com/programs/dual-diagnosis-treatment-montana/ Best Drug Rehab Montana: https://bearcreekwellness.com/programs/drug-addiction-treatment-center-montana/

Service We Offer:

Drug Detox Drug Treatment Dual Diagnosis Treatment Addiction Treatment Inpatient Residential Treatment

[substancerehab]

Find Substance Abuse Treatment Center in Montana

Searching for treatment centers in montana? Find the list of drug rehab & treatment centers in montana, which provides treatment of substance & opioid abuse/addiction.

[hag-o-hags]

I've talked a few times about My Brother The Social Worker -- he's an LCSW in Montana who's been working with an addiction recovery center for the last few years. Montana, unsurprisingly, has a lot of people who are struggling with their addictions -- there are huge barriers to treatment that start with being hours by car from support to cultural avoidance to, as always, money.

Joann, my brother's boss, began an Intensive Outpatient program as someone in recovery herself, with the goal of meeting people where they're at instead of pushing "addicts" through a system. She created a small, tight-knit, talented group of therapists and social workers who are invested in their clients and their treatment.

Over the last month or so, the business was going through a financial crisis due to the apparent actions of someone who had access to the business's money. This person was confronted about the behavior and their access to the money was cut off. Tragically, this person murdered Joann on the night of Friday, March 17, 2023.

Since her passing, my brother has been trying to balance grieving and keeping Joann's mission alive. Even though technically they aren't being paid, he and the other therapists have been continuing to support the clients through their grief and addiction -- ensuring that the people who also knew Joann aren't left without care. They are navigating immensely complex systems of licensing and insurance while trying to manage everything else that's happening.

They've started a Gofundme, because that's where they're at. When someone passes suddenly, their assets, their business's assets, can get tangled up for months while courts make sure the estate is distributed properly. As of today, it's been a week and a half. They're treading water right now, but they badly need a life raft.

If you can help by giving money, that is wonderful. If you can help by sharing, that's also amazing. If you can't interact with this post, that is more than fine -- please take care of yourself, be safe.

- Nikita, @hag-o-hags

Seeking Recovery - Addiction treatment center: https://www.iamseekingrecovery.com/

KRTV Great Falls - Sheriff release name of GF murder victim: https://www.krtv.com/sheriff-releases-name-of-great-falls-murder-victim

[curtisedmarkwi]

The Green Bay Packers’ Storied 1996 Super Bowl Year

The 1996 Green Bay Packers remain one of the most storied teams in franchise history. Anchored by quarterback Brett Favre and defensive tackle Reggie White and coached by Mike Holmgren, the team was the culmination of a steady upward ascent. The template for success was set when Green Bay successfully recruited Holmgren, who had achieved success under San Francisco coach Bill Walsh during the 49ers glory years of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and Ronnie Lott.

Favre, a fan favorite from his first 1992 snap, progressed steadily, combining speed in the pocket with hard-hitting passes. The team made the playoffs in 1993 and 1994 and attained a spot in the NFC Championship Game in 1995. Having earned his first MVP award in 1995, Favre came into the 1996 season with a cloud over his head as he underwent treatment for an addiction to painkillers. Despite his personal issues, Favre emerged as a commanding presence on a team that was balanced offensively and defensively.

On the defensive end, the 34-year-old veteran Reggie White was a feared presence who lined up at the left end but sometimes shifted to center. Combining strength and power, he required two linemen to hold him in check. Operating under defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur, the team had a power-rushing approach that sent big bodies at the opposing quarterback en masse. At the same time, the four starting defensive backs attained 24 interceptions across 19 games, with opponents’ passer ratings at 55.4, the lowest NFL mark of the past four decades.

The Packers’ offense was a juggernaut, with Favre adept in racing out of the pocket and time connecting with receiver Antonio Freeman, as well as the fleet-footed Don Beebe, Andre Rison, and tight-end Mark Chmura. Benefitting from the lead blocking of William Henderson, Dorsey Levens and Edgar Bennett consistently moved the chains at running back, attaining an average of 151.7 yards rushing per postseason game.

The results were substantive: the Packers achieved the highest-scoring offense in 1996 (456) while limiting opposing teams to the fewest total points (210). This was the first time a team had achieved such a feat since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who went undefeated. En route to his second consecutive MVP award, Brett Favre successfully threw into the end zone on 39 occasions.

A playoff highlight occurred on January 6, 1996, when the Packers took on the 49ers in the divisional round as 10-point underdogs. San Francisco featured a blitz-heavy approach that Favre used to his advantage, evading attackers and throwing to sparsely defended receivers downfield, avoiding turnovers in the process. At the same time, the Packers put intense pressure on quarterback Steve Young, shutting down the usually explosive run and closely tracking wide receivers. Jerry Rice couldn’t establish his usual connection with the ball, while rookie J.J. Stokes succumbed to the pressure of the moment, dropping a number of key passes. Pulling ahead 21-3, the Packers had victory essentially locked away by halftime.

Moving on to the Super Bowl, the Packers once again combined offensive and defensive prowess in a 35-21 victory against the New England Patriots. The hero of this game was not Favre but Desmond Howard, who had a miracle 99-yard run on special teams for a touchdown that put the Packers ahead and earned him the MVP nod. At the time of this rousing victory, no one would have guessed that this would be the one defining championship for Brett Favre across a two-decades-long career.

[banyanstuart]

French Montana Quits Drinking After Health Scare; Banyan Treatment Center Offers Treatment Options for Addiction

Last week, we found out an inspiring story about rap artist French Montana's decision to quit drinking and focus on his physical health. In 2019, Montana was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital for intense nausea, headaches, and abdominal pains. His team immediately shifted into high gear and started to look for possible causes. Though the cause wasn't immediately clear, Montana stuck to the doctor's orders and began to look into drug and alcohol addiction as a potential factor. After finishing a 10-day rehab stay and months of therapy, he has since quit drinking and is taking extra measures to get healthier. Here are the three main takeaways from his story: 1. Health should always be a priority. Montana's story is a true testament to the power of self-care and why it should be prioritized. When your health is threatened, it is important to take care of yourself and to get the help you need. 2. addiction can lead to serious illness. It can be easy to forget the gravity of an addiction, but as Montana experienced, it can have serious and even life-threatening consequences. 3. recovery is possible. Montana refused to give up, and now he is in the road to recovery. Through the power of support, therapy, and hard work, it is possible to make a positive foothold in sobriety and healthier lifestyle. For more information on French Montana's struggle with addiction, and how he's now focusing on his physical health, click here. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, visit Banyan Treatment Center's homepage, where you can seek professional help and find resources for recovery.

[gygerbeen]

Montana Lawmakers Seek More Information About Governor’s HEART Fund

A fund championed by Gov. Greg Gianforte to fill gaps in Montana’s substance use and behavioral health treatment programs has spent $5.2 million since last year as the state waits for an additional $19 million in federal funding.

Now, the Republican governor wants to put more state money into the Healing and Ending Addiction Through Recovery and Treatment initiative, but lawmakers and mental health advocates are asking for more accountability and clarity on how the money is spent.

Republican Rep. Jennifer Carlson, chair of the Human Services Committee of the Montana House of Representatives, said her committee has heard bill proposals seeking to use HEART money for child care and suicide prevention programs, among others. She is sponsoring a bill to increase HEART initiative reporting requirements.

“You really have to think, is that what that money is for, or is that just what’s convenient?” said Carlson.

Matt Kuntz, executive director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said a lot of questions have been floating around about the initiative this legislative session.

“Nobody really knows exactly how this is being spent or the process of how to get it,” Kuntz said.

The legislature passed Gianforte’s HEART initiative soon after he took office. It uses revenue primarily from recreational marijuana taxes for the state’s $6 million annual share to be distributed to programs dedicated to treating substance use and mental health disorders.

A federal match would bring the fund total to $25 million, but the state is waiting for full approval of its Medicaid waiver application from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The federal agency approved part of the waiver last year.

“Until CMS approves the full HEART waiver, the state is limited in what we can do,” said Jon Ebelt, spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The health department submits a report to CMS four times a year. Department officials did not respond to a request by KHN for the latest report. The department is supposed to receive reports from tribal nations on how their funds were used. It didn’t specify whether it had received any.

Carlson’s House Bill 310 would require the department to report HEART initiative spending to the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee each year. That reporting would allow lawmakers to know what the money had already been used for, and if there might be a better way to spend it, Carlson said.

When Gianforte introduced the HEART initiative during his 2021 State of the State speech, he said it was designed to give directly to local communities, which know their own needs best.

“This is not bigger government,” the governor said at the time.

The HEART money is distributed through grants and Medicaid-funded services. Of the $5.2 million distributed since 2022, $1.5 million has gone to Medicaid for services like inpatient and residential chemical dependency services, Ebelt said.

Eight Indigenous tribal nations have received $1 million covering fiscal year 2022, the first year of the fund, and 2023, the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Those grants went toward substance use prevention; mental health promotion; mental health crisis, treatment, and recovery services; and tobacco cessation and prevention.

Seven county detention centers received a total of $2.7 million in HEART money through a competitive grant process to provide behavioral health services at those facilities.

Missoula County hired a therapist, jail care coordinator, and mental health transport officer with its share. Gallatin County hired a counselor and two social workers, and Lewis and Clark County hired a therapist, case manager, and education and transport manager.

Jackie Kerry Lemon, program and facilities director at the Gallatin County Detention Center, said the money had to be used for mental health and addiction services. “Our population is often in crisis when they come to us, so having that ability to have a therapist see them really does help with their anxiety and their needs at a good time,” Kerry Lemon said.

Democratic state Rep. Mary Caferro, who says Montana hasn’t distributed enough HEART fund money, suggested it could be used to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates to health care providers.(Keely Larson / KHN)

Democratic Rep. Mary Caferro said the HEART money could go toward increases in the Medicaid rates paid to health care providers, which a state study found fall short of the cost of care, or mobile crisis response teams, which the health department intends to provide as a Medicaid service.

Caferro is sponsoring a bill on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness to add youth suicide prevention to the list of programs eligible for HEART funding.

Mary Windecker, executive director of the Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana, said the HEART fund initially was meant to support tribes and county jails, and only recently did it start funding community substance use and mental health programs, after last year’s partial Medicaid waiver approval.

That allowed larger substance use disorder treatment centers (more than 17 beds) to receive Medicaid reimbursement for short-term stays at institutions for mental illness, like Rimrock in Billings and the Badlands Treatment Center in Glendive.

From July 2022 to January 2023, Ebelt said, 276 Medicaid recipients were treated in Rimrock and Badlands. A facility in Clinton, the Recovery Centers of Montana, opened in December and will be licensed for 55 additional beds able to serve patients with the new Medicaid benefit, Ebelt said. Gianforte proposed in his state budget to increase the amount going into the HEART fund by changing the funding formula from $6 million a year to 11% of Montana’s annual recreational marijuana tax revenue.

The Behavioral Health Alliance recommended that change, but, as with many of the health-related proposals in this legislative session, a major factor in the HEART initiative’s success will be whether Medicaid provider rates are raised enough, Windecker said. If provider rates aren’t funded at the full cost of care, people won’t be available to provide the care the initiative promises, she said.

The committee that meets to determine the health department’s budget will hear a presentation about the HEART initiative on Feb. 9.

Keely Larson is the KHN fellow for the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Newspaper Association, and Kaiser Health News. Larson is a graduate student in environmental and natural resources journalism at the University of Montana.

Related Topics

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Read more here https://angelino.news

[kollegewinterscheidt]

Montana Lawmakers Seek More Information About Governor’s HEART Fund

A fund championed by Gov. Greg Gianforte to fill gaps in Montana’s substance use and behavioral health treatment programs has spent $5.2 million since last year as the state waits for an additional $19 million in federal funding.

Now, the Republican governor wants to put more state money into the Healing and Ending Addiction Through Recovery and Treatment initiative, but lawmakers and mental health advocates are asking for more accountability and clarity on how the money is spent.

Republican Rep. Jennifer Carlson, chair of the Human Services Committee of the Montana House of Representatives, said her committee has heard bill proposals seeking to use HEART money for child care and suicide prevention programs, among others. She is sponsoring a bill to increase HEART initiative reporting requirements.

“You really have to think, is that what that money is for, or is that just what’s convenient?” said Carlson.

Matt Kuntz, executive director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said a lot of questions have been floating around about the initiative this legislative session.

“Nobody really knows exactly how this is being spent or the process of how to get it,” Kuntz said.

The legislature passed Gianforte’s HEART initiative soon after he took office. It uses revenue primarily from recreational marijuana taxes for the state’s $6 million annual share to be distributed to programs dedicated to treating substance use and mental health disorders.

A federal match would bring the fund total to $25 million, but the state is waiting for full approval of its Medicaid waiver application from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The federal agency approved part of the waiver last year.

“Until CMS approves the full HEART waiver, the state is limited in what we can do,” said Jon Ebelt, spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The health department submits a report to CMS four times a year. Department officials did not respond to a request by KHN for the latest report. The department is supposed to receive reports from tribal nations on how their funds were used. It didn’t specify whether it had received any.

Carlson’s House Bill 310 would require the department to report HEART initiative spending to the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee each year. That reporting would allow lawmakers to know what the money had already been used for, and if there might be a better way to spend it, Carlson said.

When Gianforte introduced the HEART initiative during his 2021 State of the State speech, he said it was designed to give directly to local communities, which know their own needs best.

“This is not bigger government,” the governor said at the time.

The HEART money is distributed through grants and Medicaid-funded services. Of the $5.2 million distributed since 2022, $1.5 million has gone to Medicaid for services like inpatient and residential chemical dependency services, Ebelt said.

Eight Indigenous tribal nations have received $1 million covering fiscal year 2022, the first year of the fund, and 2023, the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Those grants went toward substance use prevention; mental health promotion; mental health crisis, treatment, and recovery services; and tobacco cessation and prevention.

Seven county detention centers received a total of $2.7 million in HEART money through a competitive grant process to provide behavioral health services at those facilities.

Missoula County hired a therapist, jail care coordinator, and mental health transport officer with its share. Gallatin County hired a counselor and two social workers, and Lewis and Clark County hired a therapist, case manager, and education and transport manager.

Jackie Kerry Lemon, program and facilities director at the Gallatin County Detention Center, said the money had to be used for mental health and addiction services. “Our population is often in crisis when they come to us, so having that ability to have a therapist see them really does help with their anxiety and their needs at a good time,” Kerry Lemon said.

Democratic state Rep. Mary Caferro, who says Montana hasn’t distributed enough HEART fund money, suggested it could be used to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates to health care providers.(Keely Larson / KHN)

Democratic Rep. Mary Caferro said the HEART money could go toward increases in the Medicaid rates paid to health care providers, which a state study found fall short of the cost of care, or mobile crisis response teams, which the health department intends to provide as a Medicaid service.

Caferro is sponsoring a bill on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness to add youth suicide prevention to the list of programs eligible for HEART funding.

Mary Windecker, executive director of the Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana, said the HEART fund initially was meant to support tribes and county jails, and only recently did it start funding community substance use and mental health programs, after last year’s partial Medicaid waiver approval.

That allowed larger substance use disorder treatment centers (more than 17 beds) to receive Medicaid reimbursement for short-term stays at institutions for mental illness, like Rimrock in Billings and the Badlands Treatment Center in Glendive.

From July 2022 to January 2023, Ebelt said, 276 Medicaid recipients were treated in Rimrock and Badlands. A facility in Clinton, the Recovery Centers of Montana, opened in December and will be licensed for 55 additional beds able to serve patients with the new Medicaid benefit, Ebelt said. Gianforte proposed in his state budget to increase the amount going into the HEART fund by changing the funding formula from $6 million a year to 11% of Montana’s annual recreational marijuana tax revenue.

The Behavioral Health Alliance recommended that change, but, as with many of the health-related proposals in this legislative session, a major factor in the HEART initiative’s success will be whether Medicaid provider rates are raised enough, Windecker said. If provider rates aren’t funded at the full cost of care, people won’t be available to provide the care the initiative promises, she said.

The committee that meets to determine the health department’s budget will hear a presentation about the HEART initiative on Feb. 9.

Keely Larson is the KHN fellow for the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Newspaper Association, and Kaiser Health News. Larson is a graduate student in environmental and natural resources journalism at the University of Montana.

Related Topics

Contact Us Submit a Story Tip

Read more here https://angelino.news

[amelias-universe]

Montana Lawmakers Seek More Information About Governor’s HEART Fund

A fund championed by Gov. Greg Gianforte to fill gaps in Montana’s substance use and behavioral health treatment programs has spent $5.2 million since last year as the state waits for an additional $19 million in federal funding.

Now, the Republican governor wants to put more state money into the Healing and Ending Addiction Through Recovery and Treatment initiative, but lawmakers and mental health advocates are asking for more accountability and clarity on how the money is spent.

Republican Rep. Jennifer Carlson, chair of the Human Services Committee of the Montana House of Representatives, said her committee has heard bill proposals seeking to use HEART money for child care and suicide prevention programs, among others. She is sponsoring a bill to increase HEART initiative reporting requirements.

“You really have to think, is that what that money is for, or is that just what’s convenient?” said Carlson.

Matt Kuntz, executive director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said a lot of questions have been floating around about the initiative this legislative session.

“Nobody really knows exactly how this is being spent or the process of how to get it,” Kuntz said.

The legislature passed Gianforte’s HEART initiative soon after he took office. It uses revenue primarily from recreational marijuana taxes for the state’s $6 million annual share to be distributed to programs dedicated to treating substance use and mental health disorders.

A federal match would bring the fund total to $25 million, but the state is waiting for full approval of its Medicaid waiver application from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The federal agency approved part of the waiver last year.

“Until CMS approves the full HEART waiver, the state is limited in what we can do,” said Jon Ebelt, spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The health department submits a report to CMS four times a year. Department officials did not respond to a request by KHN for the latest report. The department is supposed to receive reports from tribal nations on how their funds were used. It didn’t specify whether it had received any.

Carlson’s House Bill 310 would require the department to report HEART initiative spending to the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee each year. That reporting would allow lawmakers to know what the money had already been used for, and if there might be a better way to spend it, Carlson said.

When Gianforte introduced the HEART initiative during his 2021 State of the State speech, he said it was designed to give directly to local communities, which know their own needs best.

“This is not bigger government,” the governor said at the time.

The HEART money is distributed through grants and Medicaid-funded services. Of the $5.2 million distributed since 2022, $1.5 million has gone to Medicaid for services like inpatient and residential chemical dependency services, Ebelt said.

Eight Indigenous tribal nations have received $1 million covering fiscal year 2022, the first year of the fund, and 2023, the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Those grants went toward substance use prevention; mental health promotion; mental health crisis, treatment, and recovery services; and tobacco cessation and prevention.

Seven county detention centers received a total of $2.7 million in HEART money through a competitive grant process to provide behavioral health services at those facilities.

Missoula County hired a therapist, jail care coordinator, and mental health transport officer with its share. Gallatin County hired a counselor and two social workers, and Lewis and Clark County hired a therapist, case manager, and education and transport manager.

Jackie Kerry Lemon, program and facilities director at the Gallatin County Detention Center, said the money had to be used for mental health and addiction services. “Our population is often in crisis when they come to us, so having that ability to have a therapist see them really does help with their anxiety and their needs at a good time,” Kerry Lemon said.

Democratic state Rep. Mary Caferro, who says Montana hasn’t distributed enough HEART fund money, suggested it could be used to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates to health care providers.(Keely Larson / KHN)

Democratic Rep. Mary Caferro said the HEART money could go toward increases in the Medicaid rates paid to health care providers, which a state study found fall short of the cost of care, or mobile crisis response teams, which the health department intends to provide as a Medicaid service.

Caferro is sponsoring a bill on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness to add youth suicide prevention to the list of programs eligible for HEART funding.

Mary Windecker, executive director of the Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana, said the HEART fund initially was meant to support tribes and county jails, and only recently did it start funding community substance use and mental health programs, after last year’s partial Medicaid waiver approval.

That allowed larger substance use disorder treatment centers (more than 17 beds) to receive Medicaid reimbursement for short-term stays at institutions for mental illness, like Rimrock in Billings and the Badlands Treatment Center in Glendive.

From July 2022 to January 2023, Ebelt said, 276 Medicaid recipients were treated in Rimrock and Badlands. A facility in Clinton, the Recovery Centers of Montana, opened in December and will be licensed for 55 additional beds able to serve patients with the new Medicaid benefit, Ebelt said. Gianforte proposed in his state budget to increase the amount going into the HEART fund by changing the funding formula from $6 million a year to 11% of Montana’s annual recreational marijuana tax revenue.

The Behavioral Health Alliance recommended that change, but, as with many of the health-related proposals in this legislative session, a major factor in the HEART initiative’s success will be whether Medicaid provider rates are raised enough, Windecker said. If provider rates aren’t funded at the full cost of care, people won’t be available to provide the care the initiative promises, she said.

The committee that meets to determine the health department’s budget will hear a presentation about the HEART initiative on Feb. 9.

Keely Larson is the KHN fellow for the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Newspaper Association, and Kaiser Health News. Larson is a graduate student in environmental and natural resources journalism at the University of Montana.

Related Topics

Contact Us Submit a Story Tip

Read more here https://angelino.news

[huziihisasi]

Montana Lawmakers Seek More Information About Governor’s HEART Fund

A fund championed by Gov. Greg Gianforte to fill gaps in Montana’s substance use and behavioral health treatment programs has spent $5.2 million since last year as the state waits for an additional $19 million in federal funding.

Now, the Republican governor wants to put more state money into the Healing and Ending Addiction Through Recovery and Treatment initiative, but lawmakers and mental health advocates are asking for more accountability and clarity on how the money is spent.

Republican Rep. Jennifer Carlson, chair of the Human Services Committee of the Montana House of Representatives, said her committee has heard bill proposals seeking to use HEART money for child care and suicide prevention programs, among others. She is sponsoring a bill to increase HEART initiative reporting requirements.

“You really have to think, is that what that money is for, or is that just what’s convenient?” said Carlson.

Matt Kuntz, executive director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said a lot of questions have been floating around about the initiative this legislative session.

“Nobody really knows exactly how this is being spent or the process of how to get it,” Kuntz said.

The legislature passed Gianforte’s HEART initiative soon after he took office. It uses revenue primarily from recreational marijuana taxes for the state’s $6 million annual share to be distributed to programs dedicated to treating substance use and mental health disorders.

A federal match would bring the fund total to $25 million, but the state is waiting for full approval of its Medicaid waiver application from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The federal agency approved part of the waiver last year.

“Until CMS approves the full HEART waiver, the state is limited in what we can do,” said Jon Ebelt, spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The health department submits a report to CMS four times a year. Department officials did not respond to a request by KHN for the latest report. The department is supposed to receive reports from tribal nations on how their funds were used. It didn’t specify whether it had received any.

Carlson’s House Bill 310 would require the department to report HEART initiative spending to the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee each year. That reporting would allow lawmakers to know what the money had already been used for, and if there might be a better way to spend it, Carlson said.

When Gianforte introduced the HEART initiative during his 2021 State of the State speech, he said it was designed to give directly to local communities, which know their own needs best.

“This is not bigger government,” the governor said at the time.

The HEART money is distributed through grants and Medicaid-funded services. Of the $5.2 million distributed since 2022, $1.5 million has gone to Medicaid for services like inpatient and residential chemical dependency services, Ebelt said.

Eight Indigenous tribal nations have received $1 million covering fiscal year 2022, the first year of the fund, and 2023, the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Those grants went toward substance use prevention; mental health promotion; mental health crisis, treatment, and recovery services; and tobacco cessation and prevention.

Seven county detention centers received a total of $2.7 million in HEART money through a competitive grant process to provide behavioral health services at those facilities.

Missoula County hired a therapist, jail care coordinator, and mental health transport officer with its share. Gallatin County hired a counselor and two social workers, and Lewis and Clark County hired a therapist, case manager, and education and transport manager.

Jackie Kerry Lemon, program and facilities director at the Gallatin County Detention Center, said the money had to be used for mental health and addiction services. “Our population is often in crisis when they come to us, so having that ability to have a therapist see them really does help with their anxiety and their needs at a good time,” Kerry Lemon said.

Democratic state Rep. Mary Caferro, who says Montana hasn’t distributed enough HEART fund money, suggested it could be used to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates to health care providers.(Keely Larson / KHN)

Democratic Rep. Mary Caferro said the HEART money could go toward increases in the Medicaid rates paid to health care providers, which a state study found fall short of the cost of care, or mobile crisis response teams, which the health department intends to provide as a Medicaid service.

Caferro is sponsoring a bill on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness to add youth suicide prevention to the list of programs eligible for HEART funding.

Mary Windecker, executive director of the Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana, said the HEART fund initially was meant to support tribes and county jails, and only recently did it start funding community substance use and mental health programs, after last year’s partial Medicaid waiver approval.

That allowed larger substance use disorder treatment centers (more than 17 beds) to receive Medicaid reimbursement for short-term stays at institutions for mental illness, like Rimrock in Billings and the Badlands Treatment Center in Glendive.

From July 2022 to January 2023, Ebelt said, 276 Medicaid recipients were treated in Rimrock and Badlands. A facility in Clinton, the Recovery Centers of Montana, opened in December and will be licensed for 55 additional beds able to serve patients with the new Medicaid benefit, Ebelt said. Gianforte proposed in his state budget to increase the amount going into the HEART fund by changing the funding formula from $6 million a year to 11% of Montana’s annual recreational marijuana tax revenue.

The Behavioral Health Alliance recommended that change, but, as with many of the health-related proposals in this legislative session, a major factor in the HEART initiative’s success will be whether Medicaid provider rates are raised enough, Windecker said. If provider rates aren’t funded at the full cost of care, people won’t be available to provide the care the initiative promises, she said.

The committee that meets to determine the health department’s budget will hear a presentation about the HEART initiative on Feb. 9.

Keely Larson is the KHN fellow for the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Newspaper Association, and Kaiser Health News. Larson is a graduate student in environmental and natural resources journalism at the University of Montana.

Related Topics

Contact Us Submit a Story Tip

Read more here https://angelino.news

[ofthemoonandsea]

Montana Lawmakers Seek More Information About Governor’s HEART Fund

A fund championed by Gov. Greg Gianforte to fill gaps in Montana’s substance use and behavioral health treatment programs has spent $5.2 million since last year as the state waits for an additional $19 million in federal funding.

Now, the Republican governor wants to put more state money into the Healing and Ending Addiction Through Recovery and Treatment initiative, but lawmakers and mental health advocates are asking for more accountability and clarity on how the money is spent.

Republican Rep. Jennifer Carlson, chair of the Human Services Committee of the Montana House of Representatives, said her committee has heard bill proposals seeking to use HEART money for child care and suicide prevention programs, among others. She is sponsoring a bill to increase HEART initiative reporting requirements.

“You really have to think, is that what that money is for, or is that just what’s convenient?” said Carlson.

Matt Kuntz, executive director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said a lot of questions have been floating around about the initiative this legislative session.

“Nobody really knows exactly how this is being spent or the process of how to get it,” Kuntz said.

The legislature passed Gianforte’s HEART initiative soon after he took office. It uses revenue primarily from recreational marijuana taxes for the state’s $6 million annual share to be distributed to programs dedicated to treating substance use and mental health disorders.

A federal match would bring the fund total to $25 million, but the state is waiting for full approval of its Medicaid waiver application from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The federal agency approved part of the waiver last year.

“Until CMS approves the full HEART waiver, the state is limited in what we can do,” said Jon Ebelt, spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The health department submits a report to CMS four times a year. Department officials did not respond to a request by KHN for the latest report. The department is supposed to receive reports from tribal nations on how their funds were used. It didn’t specify whether it had received any.

Carlson’s House Bill 310 would require the department to report HEART initiative spending to the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee each year. That reporting would allow lawmakers to know what the money had already been used for, and if there might be a better way to spend it, Carlson said.

When Gianforte introduced the HEART initiative during his 2021 State of the State speech, he said it was designed to give directly to local communities, which know their own needs best.

“This is not bigger government,” the governor said at the time.

The HEART money is distributed through grants and Medicaid-funded services. Of the $5.2 million distributed since 2022, $1.5 million has gone to Medicaid for services like inpatient and residential chemical dependency services, Ebelt said.

Eight Indigenous tribal nations have received $1 million covering fiscal year 2022, the first year of the fund, and 2023, the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Those grants went toward substance use prevention; mental health promotion; mental health crisis, treatment, and recovery services; and tobacco cessation and prevention.

Seven county detention centers received a total of $2.7 million in HEART money through a competitive grant process to provide behavioral health services at those facilities.

Missoula County hired a therapist, jail care coordinator, and mental health transport officer with its share. Gallatin County hired a counselor and two social workers, and Lewis and Clark County hired a therapist, case manager, and education and transport manager.

Jackie Kerry Lemon, program and facilities director at the Gallatin County Detention Center, said the money had to be used for mental health and addiction services. “Our population is often in crisis when they come to us, so having that ability to have a therapist see them really does help with their anxiety and their needs at a good time,” Kerry Lemon said.

Democratic state Rep. Mary Caferro, who says Montana hasn’t distributed enough HEART fund money, suggested it could be used to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates to health care providers.(Keely Larson / KHN)

Democratic Rep. Mary Caferro said the HEART money could go toward increases in the Medicaid rates paid to health care providers, which a state study found fall short of the cost of care, or mobile crisis response teams, which the health department intends to provide as a Medicaid service.

Caferro is sponsoring a bill on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness to add youth suicide prevention to the list of programs eligible for HEART funding.

Mary Windecker, executive director of the Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana, said the HEART fund initially was meant to support tribes and county jails, and only recently did it start funding community substance use and mental health programs, after last year’s partial Medicaid waiver approval.

That allowed larger substance use disorder treatment centers (more than 17 beds) to receive Medicaid reimbursement for short-term stays at institutions for mental illness, like Rimrock in Billings and the Badlands Treatment Center in Glendive.

From July 2022 to January 2023, Ebelt said, 276 Medicaid recipients were treated in Rimrock and Badlands. A facility in Clinton, the Recovery Centers of Montana, opened in December and will be licensed for 55 additional beds able to serve patients with the new Medicaid benefit, Ebelt said. Gianforte proposed in his state budget to increase the amount going into the HEART fund by changing the funding formula from $6 million a year to 11% of Montana’s annual recreational marijuana tax revenue.

The Behavioral Health Alliance recommended that change, but, as with many of the health-related proposals in this legislative session, a major factor in the HEART initiative’s success will be whether Medicaid provider rates are raised enough, Windecker said. If provider rates aren’t funded at the full cost of care, people won’t be available to provide the care the initiative promises, she said.

The committee that meets to determine the health department’s budget will hear a presentation about the HEART initiative on Feb. 9.

Keely Larson is the KHN fellow for the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Newspaper Association, and Kaiser Health News. Larson is a graduate student in environmental and natural resources journalism at the University of Montana.

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[bearcreekwellnesscenter]

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[studybuddycara]

Montana Lawmakers Seek More Information About Governor’s HEART Fund

A fund championed by Gov. Greg Gianforte to fill gaps in Montana’s substance use and behavioral health treatment programs has spent $5.2 million since last year as the state waits for an additional $19 million in federal funding.

Now, the Republican governor wants to put more state money into the Healing and Ending Addiction Through Recovery and Treatment initiative, but lawmakers and mental health advocates are asking for more accountability and clarity on how the money is spent.

Republican Rep. Jennifer Carlson, chair of the Human Services Committee of the Montana House of Representatives, said her committee has heard bill proposals seeking to use HEART money for child care and suicide prevention programs, among others. She is sponsoring a bill to increase HEART initiative reporting requirements.

“You really have to think, is that what that money is for, or is that just what’s convenient?” said Carlson.

Matt Kuntz, executive director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said a lot of questions have been floating around about the initiative this legislative session.

“Nobody really knows exactly how this is being spent or the process of how to get it,” Kuntz said.

The legislature passed Gianforte’s HEART initiative soon after he took office. It uses revenue primarily from recreational marijuana taxes for the state’s $6 million annual share to be distributed to programs dedicated to treating substance use and mental health disorders.

A federal match would bring the fund total to $25 million, but the state is waiting for full approval of its Medicaid waiver application from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The federal agency approved part of the waiver last year.

“Until CMS approves the full HEART waiver, the state is limited in what we can do,” said Jon Ebelt, spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The health department submits a report to CMS four times a year. Department officials did not respond to a request by KHN for the latest report. The department is supposed to receive reports from tribal nations on how their funds were used. It didn’t specify whether it had received any.

Carlson’s House Bill 310 would require the department to report HEART initiative spending to the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee each year. That reporting would allow lawmakers to know what the money had already been used for, and if there might be a better way to spend it, Carlson said.

When Gianforte introduced the HEART initiative during his 2021 State of the State speech, he said it was designed to give directly to local communities, which know their own needs best.

“This is not bigger government,” the governor said at the time.

The HEART money is distributed through grants and Medicaid-funded services. Of the $5.2 million distributed since 2022, $1.5 million has gone to Medicaid for services like inpatient and residential chemical dependency services, Ebelt said.

Eight Indigenous tribal nations have received $1 million covering fiscal year 2022, the first year of the fund, and 2023, the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Those grants went toward substance use prevention; mental health promotion; mental health crisis, treatment, and recovery services; and tobacco cessation and prevention.

Seven county detention centers received a total of $2.7 million in HEART money through a competitive grant process to provide behavioral health services at those facilities.

Missoula County hired a therapist, jail care coordinator, and mental health transport officer with its share. Gallatin County hired a counselor and two social workers, and Lewis and Clark County hired a therapist, case manager, and education and transport manager.

Jackie Kerry Lemon, program and facilities director at the Gallatin County Detention Center, said the money had to be used for mental health and addiction services. “Our population is often in crisis when they come to us, so having that ability to have a therapist see them really does help with their anxiety and their needs at a good time,” Kerry Lemon said.

Democratic state Rep. Mary Caferro, who says Montana hasn’t distributed enough HEART fund money, suggested it could be used to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates to health care providers.(Keely Larson / KHN)

Democratic Rep. Mary Caferro said the HEART money could go toward increases in the Medicaid rates paid to health care providers, which a state study found fall short of the cost of care, or mobile crisis response teams, which the health department intends to provide as a Medicaid service.

Caferro is sponsoring a bill on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness to add youth suicide prevention to the list of programs eligible for HEART funding.

Mary Windecker, executive director of the Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana, said the HEART fund initially was meant to support tribes and county jails, and only recently did it start funding community substance use and mental health programs, after last year’s partial Medicaid waiver approval.

That allowed larger substance use disorder treatment centers (more than 17 beds) to receive Medicaid reimbursement for short-term stays at institutions for mental illness, like Rimrock in Billings and the Badlands Treatment Center in Glendive.

From July 2022 to January 2023, Ebelt said, 276 Medicaid recipients were treated in Rimrock and Badlands. A facility in Clinton, the Recovery Centers of Montana, opened in December and will be licensed for 55 additional beds able to serve patients with the new Medicaid benefit, Ebelt said. Gianforte proposed in his state budget to increase the amount going into the HEART fund by changing the funding formula from $6 million a year to 11% of Montana’s annual recreational marijuana tax revenue.

The Behavioral Health Alliance recommended that change, but, as with many of the health-related proposals in this legislative session, a major factor in the HEART initiative’s success will be whether Medicaid provider rates are raised enough, Windecker said. If provider rates aren’t funded at the full cost of care, people won’t be available to provide the care the initiative promises, she said.

The committee that meets to determine the health department’s budget will hear a presentation about the HEART initiative on Feb. 9.

Keely Larson is the KHN fellow for the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Newspaper Association, and Kaiser Health News. Larson is a graduate student in environmental and natural resources journalism at the University of Montana.

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[jaspersheart]

Montana Lawmakers Seek More Information About Governor’s HEART Fund

A fund championed by Gov. Greg Gianforte to fill gaps in Montana’s substance use and behavioral health treatment programs has spent $5.2 million since last year as the state waits for an additional $19 million in federal funding.

Now, the Republican governor wants to put more state money into the Healing and Ending Addiction Through Recovery and Treatment initiative, but lawmakers and mental health advocates are asking for more accountability and clarity on how the money is spent.

Republican Rep. Jennifer Carlson, chair of the Human Services Committee of the Montana House of Representatives, said her committee has heard bill proposals seeking to use HEART money for child care and suicide prevention programs, among others. She is sponsoring a bill to increase HEART initiative reporting requirements.

“You really have to think, is that what that money is for, or is that just what’s convenient?” said Carlson.

Matt Kuntz, executive director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said a lot of questions have been floating around about the initiative this legislative session.

“Nobody really knows exactly how this is being spent or the process of how to get it,” Kuntz said.

The legislature passed Gianforte’s HEART initiative soon after he took office. It uses revenue primarily from recreational marijuana taxes for the state’s $6 million annual share to be distributed to programs dedicated to treating substance use and mental health disorders.

A federal match would bring the fund total to $25 million, but the state is waiting for full approval of its Medicaid waiver application from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The federal agency approved part of the waiver last year.

“Until CMS approves the full HEART waiver, the state is limited in what we can do,” said Jon Ebelt, spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The health department submits a report to CMS four times a year. Department officials did not respond to a request by KHN for the latest report. The department is supposed to receive reports from tribal nations on how their funds were used. It didn’t specify whether it had received any.

Carlson’s House Bill 310 would require the department to report HEART initiative spending to the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee each year. That reporting would allow lawmakers to know what the money had already been used for, and if there might be a better way to spend it, Carlson said.

When Gianforte introduced the HEART initiative during his 2021 State of the State speech, he said it was designed to give directly to local communities, which know their own needs best.

“This is not bigger government,” the governor said at the time.

The HEART money is distributed through grants and Medicaid-funded services. Of the $5.2 million distributed since 2022, $1.5 million has gone to Medicaid for services like inpatient and residential chemical dependency services, Ebelt said.

Eight Indigenous tribal nations have received $1 million covering fiscal year 2022, the first year of the fund, and 2023, the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Those grants went toward substance use prevention; mental health promotion; mental health crisis, treatment, and recovery services; and tobacco cessation and prevention.

Seven county detention centers received a total of $2.7 million in HEART money through a competitive grant process to provide behavioral health services at those facilities.

Missoula County hired a therapist, jail care coordinator, and mental health transport officer with its share. Gallatin County hired a counselor and two social workers, and Lewis and Clark County hired a therapist, case manager, and education and transport manager.

Jackie Kerry Lemon, program and facilities director at the Gallatin County Detention Center, said the money had to be used for mental health and addiction services. “Our population is often in crisis when they come to us, so having that ability to have a therapist see them really does help with their anxiety and their needs at a good time,” Kerry Lemon said.

Democratic state Rep. Mary Caferro, who says Montana hasn’t distributed enough HEART fund money, suggested it could be used to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates to health care providers.(Keely Larson / KHN)

Democratic Rep. Mary Caferro said the HEART money could go toward increases in the Medicaid rates paid to health care providers, which a state study found fall short of the cost of care, or mobile crisis response teams, which the health department intends to provide as a Medicaid service.

Caferro is sponsoring a bill on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness to add youth suicide prevention to the list of programs eligible for HEART funding.

Mary Windecker, executive director of the Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana, said the HEART fund initially was meant to support tribes and county jails, and only recently did it start funding community substance use and mental health programs, after last year’s partial Medicaid waiver approval.

That allowed larger substance use disorder treatment centers (more than 17 beds) to receive Medicaid reimbursement for short-term stays at institutions for mental illness, like Rimrock in Billings and the Badlands Treatment Center in Glendive.

From July 2022 to January 2023, Ebelt said, 276 Medicaid recipients were treated in Rimrock and Badlands. A facility in Clinton, the Recovery Centers of Montana, opened in December and will be licensed for 55 additional beds able to serve patients with the new Medicaid benefit, Ebelt said. Gianforte proposed in his state budget to increase the amount going into the HEART fund by changing the funding formula from $6 million a year to 11% of Montana’s annual recreational marijuana tax revenue.

The Behavioral Health Alliance recommended that change, but, as with many of the health-related proposals in this legislative session, a major factor in the HEART initiative’s success will be whether Medicaid provider rates are raised enough, Windecker said. If provider rates aren’t funded at the full cost of care, people won’t be available to provide the care the initiative promises, she said.

The committee that meets to determine the health department’s budget will hear a presentation about the HEART initiative on Feb. 9.

Keely Larson is the KHN fellow for the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Newspaper Association, and Kaiser Health News. Larson is a graduate student in environmental and natural resources journalism at the University of Montana.

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Read more here https://angelino.news

[scourge-against-terfs]

Montana Lawmakers Seek More Information About Governor’s HEART Fund

A fund championed by Gov. Greg Gianforte to fill gaps in Montana’s substance use and behavioral health treatment programs has spent $5.2 million since last year as the state waits for an additional $19 million in federal funding.

Now, the Republican governor wants to put more state money into the Healing and Ending Addiction Through Recovery and Treatment initiative, but lawmakers and mental health advocates are asking for more accountability and clarity on how the money is spent.

Republican Rep. Jennifer Carlson, chair of the Human Services Committee of the Montana House of Representatives, said her committee has heard bill proposals seeking to use HEART money for child care and suicide prevention programs, among others. She is sponsoring a bill to increase HEART initiative reporting requirements.

“You really have to think, is that what that money is for, or is that just what’s convenient?” said Carlson.

Matt Kuntz, executive director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said a lot of questions have been floating around about the initiative this legislative session.

“Nobody really knows exactly how this is being spent or the process of how to get it,” Kuntz said.

The legislature passed Gianforte’s HEART initiative soon after he took office. It uses revenue primarily from recreational marijuana taxes for the state’s $6 million annual share to be distributed to programs dedicated to treating substance use and mental health disorders.

A federal match would bring the fund total to $25 million, but the state is waiting for full approval of its Medicaid waiver application from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The federal agency approved part of the waiver last year.

“Until CMS approves the full HEART waiver, the state is limited in what we can do,” said Jon Ebelt, spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The health department submits a report to CMS four times a year. Department officials did not respond to a request by KHN for the latest report. The department is supposed to receive reports from tribal nations on how their funds were used. It didn’t specify whether it had received any.

Carlson’s House Bill 310 would require the department to report HEART initiative spending to the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee each year. That reporting would allow lawmakers to know what the money had already been used for, and if there might be a better way to spend it, Carlson said.

When Gianforte introduced the HEART initiative during his 2021 State of the State speech, he said it was designed to give directly to local communities, which know their own needs best.

“This is not bigger government,” the governor said at the time.

The HEART money is distributed through grants and Medicaid-funded services. Of the $5.2 million distributed since 2022, $1.5 million has gone to Medicaid for services like inpatient and residential chemical dependency services, Ebelt said.

Eight Indigenous tribal nations have received $1 million covering fiscal year 2022, the first year of the fund, and 2023, the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Those grants went toward substance use prevention; mental health promotion; mental health crisis, treatment, and recovery services; and tobacco cessation and prevention.

Seven county detention centers received a total of $2.7 million in HEART money through a competitive grant process to provide behavioral health services at those facilities.

Missoula County hired a therapist, jail care coordinator, and mental health transport officer with its share. Gallatin County hired a counselor and two social workers, and Lewis and Clark County hired a therapist, case manager, and education and transport manager.

Jackie Kerry Lemon, program and facilities director at the Gallatin County Detention Center, said the money had to be used for mental health and addiction services. “Our population is often in crisis when they come to us, so having that ability to have a therapist see them really does help with their anxiety and their needs at a good time,” Kerry Lemon said.

Democratic state Rep. Mary Caferro, who says Montana hasn’t distributed enough HEART fund money, suggested it could be used to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates to health care providers.(Keely Larson / KHN)

Democratic Rep. Mary Caferro said the HEART money could go toward increases in the Medicaid rates paid to health care providers, which a state study found fall short of the cost of care, or mobile crisis response teams, which the health department intends to provide as a Medicaid service.

Caferro is sponsoring a bill on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness to add youth suicide prevention to the list of programs eligible for HEART funding.

Mary Windecker, executive director of the Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana, said the HEART fund initially was meant to support tribes and county jails, and only recently did it start funding community substance use and mental health programs, after last year’s partial Medicaid waiver approval.

That allowed larger substance use disorder treatment centers (more than 17 beds) to receive Medicaid reimbursement for short-term stays at institutions for mental illness, like Rimrock in Billings and the Badlands Treatment Center in Glendive.

From July 2022 to January 2023, Ebelt said, 276 Medicaid recipients were treated in Rimrock and Badlands. A facility in Clinton, the Recovery Centers of Montana, opened in December and will be licensed for 55 additional beds able to serve patients with the new Medicaid benefit, Ebelt said. Gianforte proposed in his state budget to increase the amount going into the HEART fund by changing the funding formula from $6 million a year to 11% of Montana’s annual recreational marijuana tax revenue.

The Behavioral Health Alliance recommended that change, but, as with many of the health-related proposals in this legislative session, a major factor in the HEART initiative’s success will be whether Medicaid provider rates are raised enough, Windecker said. If provider rates aren’t funded at the full cost of care, people won’t be available to provide the care the initiative promises, she said.

The committee that meets to determine the health department’s budget will hear a presentation about the HEART initiative on Feb. 9.

Keely Larson is the KHN fellow for the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Newspaper Association, and Kaiser Health News. Larson is a graduate student in environmental and natural resources journalism at the University of Montana.

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Read more here https://angelino.news

[alisonhellahendrix]

Montana Lawmakers Seek More Information About Governor’s HEART Fund

A fund championed by Gov. Greg Gianforte to fill gaps in Montana’s substance use and behavioral health treatment programs has spent $5.2 million since last year as the state waits for an additional $19 million in federal funding.

Now, the Republican governor wants to put more state money into the Healing and Ending Addiction Through Recovery and Treatment initiative, but lawmakers and mental health advocates are asking for more accountability and clarity on how the money is spent.

Republican Rep. Jennifer Carlson, chair of the Human Services Committee of the Montana House of Representatives, said her committee has heard bill proposals seeking to use HEART money for child care and suicide prevention programs, among others. She is sponsoring a bill to increase HEART initiative reporting requirements.

“You really have to think, is that what that money is for, or is that just what’s convenient?” said Carlson.

Matt Kuntz, executive director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said a lot of questions have been floating around about the initiative this legislative session.

“Nobody really knows exactly how this is being spent or the process of how to get it,” Kuntz said.

The legislature passed Gianforte’s HEART initiative soon after he took office. It uses revenue primarily from recreational marijuana taxes for the state’s $6 million annual share to be distributed to programs dedicated to treating substance use and mental health disorders.

A federal match would bring the fund total to $25 million, but the state is waiting for full approval of its Medicaid waiver application from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The federal agency approved part of the waiver last year.

“Until CMS approves the full HEART waiver, the state is limited in what we can do,” said Jon Ebelt, spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The health department submits a report to CMS four times a year. Department officials did not respond to a request by KHN for the latest report. The department is supposed to receive reports from tribal nations on how their funds were used. It didn’t specify whether it had received any.

Carlson’s House Bill 310 would require the department to report HEART initiative spending to the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee each year. That reporting would allow lawmakers to know what the money had already been used for, and if there might be a better way to spend it, Carlson said.

When Gianforte introduced the HEART initiative during his 2021 State of the State speech, he said it was designed to give directly to local communities, which know their own needs best.

“This is not bigger government,” the governor said at the time.

The HEART money is distributed through grants and Medicaid-funded services. Of the $5.2 million distributed since 2022, $1.5 million has gone to Medicaid for services like inpatient and residential chemical dependency services, Ebelt said.

Eight Indigenous tribal nations have received $1 million covering fiscal year 2022, the first year of the fund, and 2023, the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Those grants went toward substance use prevention; mental health promotion; mental health crisis, treatment, and recovery services; and tobacco cessation and prevention.

Seven county detention centers received a total of $2.7 million in HEART money through a competitive grant process to provide behavioral health services at those facilities.

Missoula County hired a therapist, jail care coordinator, and mental health transport officer with its share. Gallatin County hired a counselor and two social workers, and Lewis and Clark County hired a therapist, case manager, and education and transport manager.

Jackie Kerry Lemon, program and facilities director at the Gallatin County Detention Center, said the money had to be used for mental health and addiction services. “Our population is often in crisis when they come to us, so having that ability to have a therapist see them really does help with their anxiety and their needs at a good time,” Kerry Lemon said.

Democratic state Rep. Mary Caferro, who says Montana hasn’t distributed enough HEART fund money, suggested it could be used to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates to health care providers.(Keely Larson / KHN)

Democratic Rep. Mary Caferro said the HEART money could go toward increases in the Medicaid rates paid to health care providers, which a state study found fall short of the cost of care, or mobile crisis response teams, which the health department intends to provide as a Medicaid service.

Caferro is sponsoring a bill on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness to add youth suicide prevention to the list of programs eligible for HEART funding.

Mary Windecker, executive director of the Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana, said the HEART fund initially was meant to support tribes and county jails, and only recently did it start funding community substance use and mental health programs, after last year’s partial Medicaid waiver approval.

That allowed larger substance use disorder treatment centers (more than 17 beds) to receive Medicaid reimbursement for short-term stays at institutions for mental illness, like Rimrock in Billings and the Badlands Treatment Center in Glendive.

From July 2022 to January 2023, Ebelt said, 276 Medicaid recipients were treated in Rimrock and Badlands. A facility in Clinton, the Recovery Centers of Montana, opened in December and will be licensed for 55 additional beds able to serve patients with the new Medicaid benefit, Ebelt said. Gianforte proposed in his state budget to increase the amount going into the HEART fund by changing the funding formula from $6 million a year to 11% of Montana’s annual recreational marijuana tax revenue.

The Behavioral Health Alliance recommended that change, but, as with many of the health-related proposals in this legislative session, a major factor in the HEART initiative’s success will be whether Medicaid provider rates are raised enough, Windecker said. If provider rates aren’t funded at the full cost of care, people won’t be available to provide the care the initiative promises, she said.

The committee that meets to determine the health department’s budget will hear a presentation about the HEART initiative on Feb. 9.

Keely Larson is the KHN fellow for the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Newspaper Association, and Kaiser Health News. Larson is a graduate student in environmental and natural resources journalism at the University of Montana.

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Read more here https://angelino.news

[perennialwitness]

NYX: The Drug That Came and Went

Disclaimer: The following article was written by Artificial Intelligence Alice:GHSC:0102531.2, please refer any follow-up inquiry to Meta office 94516. 

NYX, a street drug that came into popularity in the late 2030s, responsible for the “Nostalgia Languor” epidemic and the subsequent Lost Generation, has despite its lasting effects on society remained much of an enigma. In relation to its namesake Nyx(originally thought to be an acronym though no evidence has surfaced to support this), Greek primordial goddess of night, the origins of NYX are veiled though many sources have alluded to the University of Montana Neuroscience Department as a possible source. All inquiries to their office in Missoula, MT have so far gone unanswered.

Reportedly developed for the purpose of PTSD and Personality Disorder treatment, NYX permits users to enter a trance-like state in which they manifest within a memory separate from themselves, inducing a sensation many have compared to watching a film. It is said the scientists responsible for the drug hoped that by allowing patients to view traumatic events from an objective third party perspective they could then better facilitate dialogue during traditional therapies. This process is known by recreational users as “Dream-Walking” or “Deeming”, though this is a misnomer as the experience is closer to hallucination than dreaming, while cataleptic until their experience has concluded the user does not enter REM nor are they subject to effects of sleep paralysis. 

Although NYX has been categorized as a schedule 3 narcotic by The United Nations and all countries within since its appearance on streets in 2034 and clinical trials of the drug outlawed, a survey of illicit users shows that more than 54% of those who have taken the drug reported finding a sense of catharsis and a decrease in depressive symptoms. Marketed by pushers as an alternative to LSD, Ketamine or Psilocybin usage rates spiked amongst working professionals, especially those in creative and tech related fields. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) issued a formal warning against the unsupervised consumption of NYX in 2036 following initial reports of “Nostalgia Languor”(which symptoms include Malnutrition, Narcolepsy, Anxiety, Delirium, Audio/Visual Hallucinations, Vertigo, Short-Term Amnesia and Lethargy) from Seattle hospitals. 

The first known diagnosis of this new disease was Martin Stanson(38), a legal assistant and part-time Uber driver from Burien, WA. It was reported that Stanson, after several months of recreational usage had begun Dream-Walking daily, forgoing traditional sleep in favor of a Deem. According to Neurologist and Nostalgia Languor Specialist, Dr. Teresa Madan, PhD of Stanford University, “Though NYX intoxication may appear like sleep, it is in truth the opposite. User’s neural activity spikes in all areas when under the influence, putting their minds into an overactive state that when combined with sustained use and a lack of traditional rest can lead to the symptoms associated with Nostalgia Languor.” 

One year following Stanson’s diagnosis cases of Nostalgia Languor skyrocketed, with nearly 30,000,000 cases reported worldwide, of this number close to 84% were between the ages of 29 – 45. The disease was biased in more ways than just age, in the United States middle class White Males made up a disproportionate amount of documented cases. According to Dr. Madan, “We see a concentration of cases in these areas for several reasons, one being accessibility. NYX, despite being widely distributed, was never cheap. It is believed that the true driving force behind these numbers was [perceived] failure amongst the middle-class, especially those raised in moderate comfort. In combination with a decades-long mental health crisis, those suffering from symptoms of depression could become addicted to NYX by reliving happier moments from their childhood or early-adulthood, after reaching a period of stagnation, what is commonly referred to as their ‘peak’.” She goes on to say, “The converse of this tends to be true of those born into minority or lower class social groups, they often reject the memories of their youth, pointing themselves forward and upward in hopes that one day their children will have the privilege of developing such a ‘bourgeoisie disease’.” 

By 2059 Nostalgia Languor cases reached the billions worldwide and illegal NYX production seemed to be ballooning to keep pace. Countless dollars went untaxed, birth rates plummeted and in response, governments shifted toward more aggressive tactics to eliminate the now societal threat. Drug task forces were created to target operations across the Western Hemisphere, rehabilitation research was funded at every level and punitive measures for recreational possession were strengthened. A record number of grants were issued to working class citizens of all ages in an effort to fill increasing gaps in the workforce. For three years the Western World teetered at the edge of collapse until 2041 when almost as suddenly as it had appeared NYX became nearly impossible to find on the street. By 2042 cases of Nostalgia Languor leveled off, the dealers had run out of supply. Word spread that suppliers around the world had simply vanished all within the same three month period between November 2040 and January 2041. A global initiative consisting of members representing the CIA, MI6, Interpol, DGSI, BND and NIS was created in an attempt to locate the source of the drug, no leads or arrests have yet been made public.

 As a result of the epidemic a global shift in power occurred. The largely unaffected minority and immigrant populations of countries like the US and UK have flourished due to adjustments in hiring practices as employers pivoted away from those most susceptible to NYX addiction. It was initially assumed that this would cause a shift in politics as well, propelling the Democratic and Labor parties to record levels of representation. This did not happen, on the contrary representation remained relatively balanced. Many minority leaders revealed that they had only supported the Democratic/Labor party in fear of what a majority White Republican/Tory party might endorse if left unchecked. Empowered by an increase in influence, those with more conservative views were free to represent their ideals openly.

Reminiscent of the calculated use of Crack Cocaine on the US Black population in the 1980s many White communities have crumbled as a generation of men succumbed to Nostalgia Languor, its effects causing lasting damage to those inflicted. While research continues in an effort to discover more effective treatments for the disease many fear that it may be too late. College admission amongst the Middle-class White population dropped to record lows, White Male unemployment soared while working White women(whose numbers climbed dramatically from 2050 – 2060, nearly doubling) were left unable to find suitable long-term partners. Many in metropolitan areas chose to marry either interracially or to partners of the same sex. Several government programs have been established to aid struggling families in the Mountain and West North Central regions of the United States, though their existence is tenuous as they face continuous opposition from both sides in Congress. 

Although the few remaining samples of NYX are kept under lock and key at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, GA many still worry about a resurgence of the drug. “I do not believe we will see NYX on the streets again in our lifetime, from what we’ve observed it is an extremely complex molecule to create, requiring enormous amounts of resources and a doctorate level of understanding in chemistry and neuroscience. What I fear, more than anything, is how little we still know about the drug and its origin.” Who created NYX, and where have they gone? Conspiracies sourced to online message boards within the Metaverse are plentiful, many believe that NYX was the beta-test for a new wave of psychological warfare meant to sedate enemy populations, making them susceptible to conquest. Others say that a person known only as “Sticks” participated in an undocumented trial for the drug and afterwards returned to the facility (rumored to be the University of Montana), liberated their supply and after distributing the drug themself locally for a number of years eventually sold their supply to the highest bidder. Whether either of these theories is even partially true remains to be seen, but one thing is certain; although what many refer to as “The Long Night” has ended, dawn has come and with it a reversal of fate. What happens next remains to be seen.