From: The Honorable Eddie Bernice Johnson
Sent By: carrie.palmer@mail.house.gov
Date: 7/25/2014

Mental Health Briefing on the IMD Exclusion

Dear colleague,

Please join us for a mental health briefing that will focus on the consequences of the Institutions for Mental Diseases (IMD) Exclusion on Wednesday, July 30th from 3:00-4:30 in 2253 Rayburn House Office Building.

Unfortunately, our country is currently experiencing a severe lack of inpatient and outpatient treatment options for patients with mental illness. For the most severely mentally ill, private insurance is not an option. Medicaid is often the only way that low-income people with severe mental illness (SMI) can afford to get healthcare. However, the Institutions for Mental Diseases (IMD) Exclusion prohibits Medicaid from paying for care received in mental health hospitals if the hospital has more than 16 psychiatric beds.

Seventy years ago, there were 550,000 inpatient psychiatric beds for a country half the size it is now. Today, there are only 40,000 inpatient psychiatric beds. The IMD Exclusion is what originally caused the shortage of psychiatric beds during the “deinstitutionalization” process several decades ago. The IMD exclusion has inadvertently caused our jails and prisons to become warehouses for the mentally ill and for our homeless population to grow exponentially.

While many individuals with mental illness can be treated successfully in the community, there is a small population of people with SMI who cannot. We strongly believe and advocate that this population of people deserve and have a right to be treated. If left untreated, we only continue allow individuals to suffer in prison and on the streets where they do not belong.

This briefing, hosted in conjunction with the Congressional Homelessness Caucus and moderated by the Treatment Advocacy Center will provide an opportunity to learn about the IMD Exclusion and what Congress can do to repair the situation.

Panelists include:

Dr. Ray Patterson – Prince George’s County, MD Psychiatrist

Bob Davison – Executive Director of the Mental Health Association of Essex County, NJ

Bill Bailey – President and CEO of the Cenikor Foundation

Steve Baron – Director of the District of Columbia Department of Behavioral Health

Moderated by:

Doris Fuller, Executive Director of the Treatment Advocacy Center

If you have any questions or to RSVP, please contact Carrie Palmer in Congresswoman Johnson’s office at carrie.palmer@mail.house.gov or 5-8885 or Scott Dziengelski at scott.dziengelski@mail.house.gov or 5-2301.

Sincerely,

Eddie Bernice Johnson                                                                       Tim Murphy

Member of Congress                                                                           Member of Congress