Mental health patients up 4%

The number of New Mexicans who got mental health and substance abuse treatment in programs administered through the state increased by 4 percent last year over the previous year, according to the Human Services Department.

The agency said in a recent report that 153,031 individuals were served in calendar year 2015, 90 percent of them through the Medicaid program. That compared with 146,357 people served in the 2014 calendar year.

The department said the increasing use of behavioral health services is attributable to the state’s expansion of Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act — more adults are now eligible and more than 850,000 people are enrolled — and the revamping of Medicaid under the state’s Centennial Care program.

Behavioral health services are overseen by four managed care organizations under Centennial Care.

“We’ve reformed Medicaid to be more patient-centered, addressing people’s needs earlier. ... We’re continuing to see that work well,” HSD Secretary Brent Earnest said Monday in an interview.

The behavioral health system was upended in mid-2013 when the department halted Medicaid funding to 15 nonprofit agencies and referred them to the attorney general to investigate possible fraud. All have since been exonerated of fraud, but many of them were driven out of the behavioral health business.

Advocates for the mentally ill and addicted have questioned the quality of services since that time, citing the disruption that occurred when the HSD brought five Arizona companies into the state to replace a dozen of the New Mexico nonprofits.

The newest figures were released as the system braces for the departure of the third of those Arizona companies, Agave Health, which has 12 locations and 3,170 clients and is leaving New Mexico on June 30.

Earnest said the plans for replacing Agave with other providers have not been finalized.