FY 2025 CCBHC Planning Grant - Louisiana is proposing to implement a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Planning Grant to develop and implement a state-specific certification program for CCBHCs, establish Prospective Payment Systems (PPS) for Medicaid reimbursable behavioral health services, and prepare an application to participate in a four-year CCBHC Demonstration program. Louisiana's CCBHC program will serve our statewide population of 4,590,241 residents with a special focus of adults and children who have Serious Mental Illness/Serious Emotional Disturbances (SMI/SED), substance use disorders (SUD), and co-occurring disorders (COD). Louisiana ranks higher than the national averages in several behavioral health prevalence indicators, including prevalence estimates of SMI among adults aged 18 and older at 6.24% (vs 5.86% nationally) and SUD prevalence at 20.6% among ages 18 and older (vs 17.8% nationally). Strategies & Intervention: As required by the Planning Grant, Louisiana will collect and report on Infrastructure Development, Prevention, and MH Promotion (IPP) Indicators. Each CCBHC will develop a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) plan, which must be reviewed and approved by the state in accordance with CCBHC requirements and will provide a framework for continuous quality improvement within each clinic. These plans will outline the development, implementation, and maintenance of effective, data-driven CQI processes for clinical services and management. The plans will also include a gap analysis to identify deficiencies in the existing performance measurement infrastructure and provide a clear, step-by-step process for addressing these gaps. Goals and objectives: Louisiana’s goal is to expand statewide behavioral healthcare capacity, access, and availability for residents of all ages. Key objectives of the Planning Grant are to (1) develop the Louisiana CCBHC Certification Program, (2) certify the six existing CCBHCs, and (3) recruit and prepare new CCBHCs to ensure statewide coverage. A key strategy for accomplishing the goal and objectives is partnering with the CCBHC Steering Committee, which is composed of consumers of both mental health and addiction services, family members of individuals with SMI/SED and SUD, behavioral health advocates, representatives from the state’s ten Regional Advisory Councils (RACs), and state agency employees. The CCBHC Steering Committee will include members with diverse backgrounds and ethnicities and representatives of special populations, including the elderly, federally recognized tribes, the homeless, transitional youth, veterans, and the LGBTQI+ population. The CCBHC Steering Committee will facilitate and enlist robust community level input from each region throughout the Planning Grant period to inform the Louisiana CCBHC certification criteria. Monthly meetings will focus on statewide population needs, additions to the national CCBHC criteria, and approaches to expanding capacity, access and availability based on state, regional, and local data.