For Mental Health Awareness Month, WHA created a “Did You Know?” series of brief social media posts on X (formerly Twitter) focusing on data, policy, and perspectives to help raise awareness of the complexity of mental health care challenges facing patients and providers and inform future solutions.
To follow WHA’s Mental Health Awareness Month messaging on X, go to
https://twitter.com/wihospitalassn.
Initial “Did You Know?” posts focused on resources and data from the
WHA Information Center that can help inform and support statewide, regional, and local mental health planning efforts.
- The WHA Information Center has 10 free, public dashboards of inpatient and emergency department mental health trends in Wisconsin available to provide informative, actionable info for mental health needs and planning.
- In 2023, Wisconsin hospitals had 81,150 emergency department visits for mental health or substance use disorder, a 6.7% increase from 76,034 in 2022.
- Although hospital emergency department visits increased in 2023, inpatient admissions at the State of Wisconsin’s Winnebago Mental Health Institute decreased 12.5% from 3,472 in 2022 to 3,037 in 2023.
- In comparison to the 3,037 admits at Winnebago Mental Health Institute in 2023, Wisconsin’s private sector hospitals had 43,481 inpatient admissions for mental health or substance use disorder, accounting for 87.2% of all such admissions in Wisconsin.
The WHA “Did You Know?” series for Mental Health Awareness Month has also highlighted examples of federal, state and local policy issues and decisions unique to mental health that add to the challenges and complexity of delivering sustainable, accessible mental health services in Wisconsin.
- Medicaid accounted for 46% of the 43,481 inpatient admissions for mental health or substance use disorder in Wisconsin private sector hospitals in 2023.
- Wisconsin’s Medicaid program pays psychiatric hospitals 15% less than the hospital’s costs as calculated by CMS. As a result, a psychiatric hospital incurs a loss every time the hospital admits a Medicaid patient.
- Medicare excludes inpatient psych in small rural hospitals (CAHs) from the payment system created to sustain rural hospitals. Result: Loss of rural inpatient psych due to much higher losses than physical health services.
- In 1970, the number of county/state operated psychiatric beds in Wisconsin was 13,234 beds. In 2023, Wisconsin had fewer than 250 county/state operated inpatient psychiatric beds.
- Between 2019 and 2023, county provided public mental health services has fallen from 74,897 individuals served to 57,832 individuals served.
- Since Wisconsin counties were authorized in 1995 to only provide mental health services based on funding availability, gov’t has shifted those public needs to hospital ERs who are prohibited from turning away patients based on ability to pay.
WHA will be continuing this “Did You Know?” series through May.
