All eyes and ears were on Governor Christie Tuesday as he delivered his annual State of the State address. He covered a lot of ground in his remarks, but for a large population in need in our state, no section was more important than the Governor’s call for greater funding for behavioral health and substance abuse treatment.

The Governor said he will budget a $100 million increase in Medicaid payments for healthcare providers that provide mental health and addiction services. It is welcome news for our healthcare providers. Medicaid traditionally has had very low reimbursement rates – so much so that it can sometimes be difficult locating a provider that accepts Medicaid cases. This infusion of state funds will allow providers to increase access to these essential services.

Some of the money will be earmarked for Medicaid accountable care organizations. Their mission is to identify those individuals who are high-frequency/high-cost users of services. Finding them proactively and giving them care in the right setting will help us avoid what is all-too-often the current practice – episodic care in hospital EDs.

This is one of the times where the right policy approach is also the right human approach. We applaud the Governor for this important step.