States with the best Medicaid Access to Mental Health

April 20, 2017 6:47 PM

I'm leaving NYC b/c of lack of good mental health services for those on Medicaid. Is there a ranking of which states have the best mental health Medicaid services? Any personal experience you can share would be great too. I'm specifically looking for EMDR and DBT.
posted by Kombucha3452 to Health & Fitness (8 answers total)

How do you define "best?" "Best" in terms of what?
posted by tiburon at 6:58 PM on April 20, 2017

Would this help?
posted by onecircleaday at 7:03 PM on April 20, 2017

Medicaid programs that pay higher physician reimbursements have less provider shortages.
Psychiatrists per population
State Mental health grades
posted by SyraCarol at 7:28 PM on April 20, 2017

Given that some states didn't expand Medicaid, you might also want to make sure that you'll still qualify for Medicaid in whatever state you're thinking about.
posted by lazuli at 8:55 PM on April 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

Perhaps Massachusetts (this Psychology Today link is a good resource in general, allowing one to filter the therapist database by state/therapeutic approach/medicaid acceptance). You may want California, though, given the current administration. Even if another state has better Medicaid mental health services this instant, CA's governor has vowed not to cut back on this program in general.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:42 PM on April 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

I had great, life-saving experiences with Medicaid-funded mental health services in the Denver metro area. I specifically recommend ADMHN, which is technically for Arapahoe and Douglas counties but which you can use if you live in other counties as well. I didn't have any problems with Aurora Mental Health, but it's also very obvious that they're underfunded relative to ADMHN.
posted by zeusianfog at 11:14 AM on April 21, 2017

So many NYC mental health professionals don't take any insurance. But I'm not sure this would be true for everywhere else in New York state (which is huge). If you haven't really looked into other options (Albany? Buffalo? Finger Lakes area?) within NY, it might be easier logistically or bureaucratically to stay in the same state.
posted by Salamandrous at 2:33 PM on April 21, 2017

Oregon has also made a commitment to keep funding Medicaid. I'm on it now and all my doctor appointments and medications don't cost me anything. As for mental health, you just need to look around for providers who take your insurance. In the office where I get my meds, one NP takes my insurance, one doesn't. It can be hard to find the info on who takes what and then who pays for this. Best of luck!
posted by bendy at 7:10 PM on April 21, 2017