Tag Archives: IMD Exclusion

Overview

On November 13, 2018 CMS (as mandated by Congress in the 21st Century cures Act) issued a State Medicaid Director Letter providing states with guidance on both: (1) existing authority for states to provide support for adults with serious mental illness (SMI) and/or children with a serious emotional disturbance (SED); and (2) a new demonstration opportunity  to permit states to offer care for certain individuals with serious mental illness residing in Institutions for Mental Disease (IMDs).… More

We have written in the past about the strange quirk in Medicaid law that prohibits Medicaid from paying for medical services for individuals who are patients in an “institution for mental disease” – a facility that has more than 16 beds and that is “primarily engaged” in providing diagnosis, treatment and care to individuals with mental illness.  This prohibition – commonly known as the “IMD Exclusion” – is a vestige of the original Medicaid program,… More