By skyforbes 
Congressional Communities is featuring one Congressional Research Service (CRS) article per day in effort to share with our readers the wealth of information that the CRS makes readily available.
Today’s featured CRS article, “Medicaid’s Institution for Mental Diseases (IMD) Exclusion,” discusses a specific rule for Medicaid coverage, which “prevents the federal government from providing federal Medicaid funds to states for any service delivered to individuals aged 21 through 64 in an [Institution for Mental Diseases].”
The report gives a specific explanation as to what an Institution for Mental Diseases (IMD) is, defining it as any hospital or other institution with more than 16 beds that has a focus in treating mental diseases. What counts as a “mental disease” is also briefly defined.
From there, the report discusses how being a patient in an IMD has an effect on services being able to be paid for with federal funds. A legislative history of the exclusion is also given, providing context for the initial intent behind it, as well as how the exclusion has evolved over time. Finally, the report looks to examples of situations in which Medicaid can obtain federal funds for providing mental health services (when the patient is not in an IMD.)
This article falls under the issue area of Health.
Interested readers can find the full article here.