Alaska proposes to pay for crisis mental health beds for the first time

Alaska is proposing to pay Medicaid, for the first time, for a kind of mental health care meant to keep people in crisis out of hospitals: short stays in state-licensed crisis stabilization and residential beds.

The Department of Health posted the rates Sept. 3, with comment open through Oct. 21. They set $81.16 an hour for a stabilization stay capped just under 24 hours, and daily rates for longer residential care of $1,833.33 for an adult and $2,197.15 for an adolescent, capped at seven days without prior approval.

The numbers cut two ways. The hourly stabilization rate comes in 36 percent below what the state already pays for a comparable 23-hour crisis stay. But the daily residential rates would be the highest on the state's entire behavioral health chart, above the $1,694 a day Alaska pays for its most intensive inpatient care.

The beds themselves come from a 2022 law that created crisis centers as an alternative to hospitals and other institutional settings. Licensing rules only took effect last December, and the payment rates are the next piece. The department says the change won't require new money.

A comment hearing is set for Oct. 6.