The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is implementing improvements to Medicaid mental health care to strengthen coordination between Medicaid Health Plans (MHPs) and Community Mental Health Service Programs (CMHSPs). A major aspect of this initiative includes expanding and improving referral pathways and making sure Medicaid beneficiaries can receive timely and coordinated care. The ultimate goal is to ensure access to timely care, along with minimizing the risks of beneficiaries "falling through the cracks" during transition between delivery systems.
To support this work, MDHHS developed a new referrals module within Care Connect 360 (CC360), a web-based care coordination platform accessible to Michigan Medicaid physical and behavioral health partners. The referrals module enables tracking and support for mental health referrals made across MHP and Prepaid Inpatient Health Plans (PIHPs) systems. This was rolled out to MHPs, PIHPs, and CMHSPs at the end of 2025. MDHHS is looking to expand this to MHP network providers in the future and is seeking input on current processes for initiating and following up on specialty mental health service referrals to CMHSPs and to assess how MHP support for these referrals and visibility provided by the CC360 referrals module could add value to clinicians, their organizations, and Medicaid beneficiaries.
Please help MDHHS better understand what is working well and where there are gaps, as well as to understand potential value of expanding access to the CC360 referrals module to include MHP network providers by completing the following survey (via the link below). It should take less than 10 minutes. The deadline to complete is September 21, 2026.
MDHHS Mental Health Care Survey
If you have further questions regarding the survey, you can contact MDHHS at MDHHS-MentalHlthFramework@michigan.gov.
For general questions, please feel free to contact Stacey P. Hettiger at shettiger@msms.org or 517-336-5766.