Economic Grand Rounds: Financing First-Episode Psychosis Services in the United States

Adequate financing is essential to implementing services for individuals experiencing a first episode of a psychotic illness. Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode (RAISE), a project sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, is providing a practical test of the implementation and effectiveness of first-episode services in real-world settings. This column describes approaches to financing early intervention services that are being used at five of 18 U.S. sites participating in a clinical trial of a team-based, multielement RAISE intervention. The authors also describe new options for financing that will become available as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is implemented more fully. The ACA will rationalize coverage of first-episode services, but the all-important Medicaid provisions will also require individual state action to implement services optimally.