Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery
The Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA), on behalf of its member hospitals, health systems, physician organizations and allied healthcare providers, appreciates this opportunity to testify in strong support of HB1737 / SB1147, “An act establishing a behavioral health workforce commission.”
Massachusetts is facing a shortage of behavioral healthcare providers. This shortage results in an inability to fully open units and facilities for lack of necessary behavioral healthcare professionals, difficulty in recruiting staff for existing inpatient and community-based services, and, ultimately, delays in care for individuals seeking behavioral healthcare.
SB1147 / HB1737 would create a behavioral health workforce commission composed of state officials, as well as provider and consumer groups, to identify reasons for shortages in inpatient and community-based settings and make recommendations to address these shortages. The report would specifically look at: shortages by service types, settings, and geography; barriers to increase the workforce; and the impact of commercial and private behavioral health wage rates on recruiting and retaining behavioral health providers. In determining recommendations, the commission would look at the efficacy of expanding current programs including: loan forgiveness programs; introducing behavioral health curricula earlier in educational programs so that there are earlier opportunities for health care professionals to become interested in the behavioral health field; and encouraging additional internship and fellowship opportunities.
The existing behavioral health workforce shortage, which is a result of systemic problems like prolonged underfunding of behavioral health services, comes at a time when there is increasing prevalence of behavioral health disorders. From 2010 to 2014, the percentage of Massachusetts residents living with a mental health disorder has increased by almost four times the national rate. A report last year from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a significant increase in the rates of suicide across the country between 1999 and 2016. In Massachusetts, the increase in suicides exceeded 35%. In addition, Massachusetts is one of the states most severely affected by the opioid crisis. These increases in behavioral health disorders only increase the demand for a robust behavioral health workforce.
In many of the rooms in which we sit to discuss various issues related to behavioral health, the workforce shortage almost always comes up as a cause. For example, MHA has been a committed participant in the Expedited Psychiatric Inpatient Admissions process, led by the administration, to address psychiatric patients boarding in emergency departments. After almost a year and a half of that process being in effect, it has become clear from the data that the percentage of patients that board in emergency departments are disproportionately children, and the biggest barrier to pediatric admissions is insufficient bed availability. Many new pediatric beds have opened since the policy went into effect in February of 2019, but the workforce shortage, particularly for recruiting and retaining psychiatrists and nurses with psychiatric experience, to staff pediatric units delayed several units from opening for several months.
It is our hope that convening this Behavioral Health Workforce Commission will provide a forum for state officials, providers, consumers, and payers to solve this problem so that all residents of the Commonwealth are able to access the behavioral health services they need when they need them.
Thank you for the opportunity to offer testimony on this matter. If you have any questions regarding this testimony, or require further information, please contact Michael Sroczynski, MHA's Senior Vice President of Government Advocacy at (781) 262-6055 or msroczynski@mhalink.org