The Utah Behavioral Health Legislative Policy Committee voted Jan. 27 to accept the Utah Behavioral Health Commission’s legislative and budget recommendations and to advance those items for the 2025 interim and next session, with one change: the committee unanimously reduced two proposed capacity requests—two rural behavioral health receiving centers and two additional mobile crisis outreach teams—to one each.

The committee is the legislative arm established under SB 27 to review the commission’s annual report before it goes to the Health and Human Services Interim Committee. Seth Anderson, policy analyst in the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, summarized the committee’s statutory duties and the reporting timeline created by SB 27. “SB 27 … created the Utah Behavioral Health Commission, and it also created this committee, the Utah Behavioral Health Legislative Policy Committee,” Anderson said during the meeting.

The commission’s chair, Ally Isom, told the committee the commission’s inaugural year has focused on process, data and a work plan to inform a five‑year strategic plan. “This is the reason I serve on this committee,” Isom said, describing family experience with bipolar disorder and saying the commission will prioritize data-driven strategy and stakeholder input as it prepares a master plan and ranked recommendations.

Why it matters: the commission’s recommendations include both statutory changes and fiscal requests the Legislature and appropriators will consider. The policy committee’s decision to accept the report and to pare back two capacity requests sets the items the committee’s sponsor plans to carry into interim and session work while signaling which requests the committee expects are most likely to be pursued this year.

Key recommendations and committee action
- Mobile crisis outreach teams (MCOTs): Commission members voted to recommend a 26% statewide increase to MCOT reimbursement rates. At the Jan. 27 meeting, commissioners framed that as a Medicaid‑funded rate change. Committee members discussed the federal match (FMAP) and implementation and then approved a modification to fund at least one additional MCOT team statewide rather than two. The commission’s original recommendation and the committee’s modification were recorded in the meeting minutes and vote.

- Rural behavioral health receiving centers: The commission recommended funding receiving centers; the committee voted to limit the near‑term request to one rural receiving center (down from two in the commission’s submitted list).

- Utah State Hospital and Huntsman Mental Health Institute: The commission recommended adding Utah State Hospital and Huntsman Mental Health Institute to the list of hospitals eligible for directed payments under last year’s hospital assessment mechanism (the change corrects two hospitals that were left off the original list). The commission also voted to support an ongoing appropriation included in the governor’s budget that the commission staff said is intended to help Utah State Hospital cover rising operating costs; the commission separately continues to prioritize a proposed 60‑bed low‑acuity (step‑down) treatment unit at the state hospital, which commissioners said is not included in the governor’s budget draft.

- Maintain pandemic-era behavioral health rate increases: During the COVID public‑health emergency some behavioral health providers received a temporary (federally supported) rate increase. The commission recommended continuing those rate increases after the federal funding expires and the commission emphasized that the state would need to pick up those costs to avoid ending the temporary increases.

- Peer support reimbursement: A public commenter, Braden Robinson of the Utah Peer Network, told the committee his group estimated a fiscal impact of about $140,000 to the state to establish the peer support Medicaid reimbursement changes the commission highlighted; Robinson said roughly $86,000 of that would be split among county systems. Robinson asked the committee to prioritize the peer reimbursement item when appropriators review requests.

Process and timing
The commission told the committee it plans a summer deadline to deliver a refined, five‑year strategic plan and a ranked list of policy and budget recommendations to help legislators and the governor’s office prepare for the 2026 session. The commission also told the committee it will spend 2025 reviewing county‑based behavioral health systems and expects to bring policy options on that topic in 2026, while continuing to develop priorities, subcommittee structure and a communications plan this year.

Committee votes and next steps
The committee recorded three formal motions: (1) a motion by Senator Vickers to reduce the receiving‑center and MCOT requests from two to one each; the chair ruled the motion passed unanimously; (2) a substitute motion (made by the chair) to accept the commission’s remaining recommendations as modified, which the committee approved unanimously; and (3) a motion to adjourn. Committee members said they plan to work with appropriations leadership and potential bill sponsors to place the recommended appropriations and statutory changes into draft legislation for the interim and 2026 session.

Members of the public had an opportunity for comment; Braden Robinson, executive director of the Utah Peer Network and a certified peer support specialist, presented a fiscal breakdown for the peer reimbursement proposal and urged the committee to prioritize that item in appropriations deliberations.

The policy committee also noted the statutory review role established in SB 27 includes a requirement that the committee review the commission’s annual report before the report is submitted to the Health and Human Services Interim Committee; the first such review is expected ahead of the commission’s Sept. 30, 2025 reporting deadline.

Limitations and outstanding items
Amounts described in the commission’s presentation and in committee discussion were not always specific in the meeting record. Where the commission referenced an appropriation in the governor’s budget for Utah State Hospital, the committee record does not supply an authoritative dollar amount in the transcript; the article therefore identifies that appropriation as “included in the governor’s budget” but does not restate an exact figure from the meeting transcript. The commission continues to list the 60‑bed step‑down unit as a priority but said that item is separate from the governor’s proposed appropriation.

The committee’s actions do not by themselves enact funding; they direct staff and sponsors to move the commission’s items into draft legislation and to coordinate with appropriators and the governor’s office this spring and summer.

Ending note: committee members repeatedly emphasized process and data collection as priorities for 2025 and encouraged the commission to submit policy options on county systems, children and youth behavioral health, and private‑sector engagement as those work streams develop.