Assessment of State Planning Grants for Community-Based Mobile Crisis Intervention Services Under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
Under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services awarded 20 state Medicaid agencies with 12-month planning grants totaling $15 million to increase their capacity to provide community-based mobile crisis intervention services for Medicaid individuals. Building on work that started as part of the ARP National Evaluation, AIR summarized awardee state use of planning grants through a systematic document review.
States that received a planning grant through the ARP have kick-started the advancement of community-based mobile crisis intervention systems by determining the needs of their residents and the gaps in current infrastructure. Of the 20 states that received planning grants, nine have successfully passed state plan amendments (SPAs) to improve their mobile crisis response systems. Several other states, including those that did not receive a planning grant, are working to develop sustainable mobile crisis response systems through SPAs and other vehicles.
The process is complex, and many states have found that more time and resources are needed to make these systems sustainable, as indicated by the number of states that requested a one-year, no-cost extension for the planning grants. Future research should follow state actions around developing sustainable mobile crisis response systems for their unique populations through SPAs and other approaches, such as expanded coverage policies and streamlined mobile crisis certifications.
