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Update: April 29, 2010
Urge Your State Senator to Support Restoration of CHIPS Program for Mental Health Services
House Bill 5696, a bill that would restore the Community Hospital
Inpatient Psychiatric Services (CHIPS) Program, was approved by the Illinois
Senate Human Services Committee April 29 on a vote of 8-0. The bill is
sponsored in the Senate by Senator William Delgado (D-2, Chicago); the bill's
chief co-sponsor is Senator Mattie Hunter (D-3, Chicago). The bill previously passed the House on a vote of 110-2. It is
expected that the proposal will continue to be part of discussions on the state
budget.
The CHIPS Program was created to help meet the needs and provide services to
people with mental illness who were unable to pay for their care and did not
qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. However, the Department of Human
Services/Division of Mental Health eliminated $9.4 million in annual funding for
the program last July, at the same time when other community mental health and
substance abuse services also were cut. As a result, hospital emergency rooms
across the state have become the safety net for providing care and treatment as
a stopgap to offset diminishing appropriate mental health care placements that
had been the state’s responsibility.
ACTION REQUESTED: Please call, visit, fax or email your Senator and urge him/her
to support HB5696. To send an email to your Senator,
click here.
To see the text of HB5696,
click here.
Suggested talking points on HB5696:
Please support House Bill 5696 to restore the
Community Hospital Inpatient Psychiatric Services (CHIPS) Program and
improve access to care for those who are most vulnerable.
The mental health system in Illinois, already broken and deteriorating,
is now in crisis.
Inpatient hospital psychiatric beds have decreased by more than 22%
since 1990, and 75 Illinois counties now have no inpatient hospital
psychiatric services at all.
According to the U.S. Center for Mental Health Services, more than
700,000 Illinois residents suffer from a severe mental illness. Rural
communities are especially hard hit, as their hospitals are inundated with
behavioral health patients for which they have few viable treatment options.
When the state closed several state-operated behavioral health
facilities in 2003, an extreme need for services continued. The Community
Hospital Inpatient Psychiatric Services Program was created to help meet the
needs and provide services to otherwise unfunded behavioral health patients,
who don’t qualify for Medicaid or Medicare.
Despite the continuing need for those services, the Department of Human
Services/Division of Mental Health last July eliminated $9.4 million in
annual funding for the CHIPS Program, at the same time when other community
mental health and substance abuse services also were cut.
As a result, hospital emergency departments across the state have become
the safety net for providing care, treatment and transportation as a stopgap
to offset diminishing appropriate care placements that had been the state’s
responsibility.
Please support House Bill 5696 to restore the CHIPS
Program and improve access to care for those who are most vulnerable. Thank
you for your attention to this critical issue.
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