The Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) was awarded a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Planning Grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This planning grant supports states in testing new strategies for delivering and reimbursing services provided in community mental health centers. These strategies can include developing and implementing certification systems for CCBHCs, establishing prospective payment systems for Medicaid reimbursable services, and preparing an application to participate in a four-year CCBHC Demonstration Program, with the ultimate goal of improving the availability, quality, and outcomes of ambulatory services provided in CMHCs.

The Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC) is serving as an evaluation partner for DBHDD to evaluate the implementation of the CCBHC Planning Grant. GHPC designed a mixed methods evaluation to monitor and evaluate the extent to which DBHDD achieves the goals and activities of the planning grant and the extent to which DBHDD’s CCBHC certification planning process is being implemented as intended. Quantitative and qualitative data will be used to assess evaluate the extent the core elements of the CCBHC planning grant were achieved, as well as identifying and describing the factors and contexts that facilitate or hinder the implementation of the certification processes.

Health Systems Transformation

Research & Evaluation