Comcare asks Sedgwick County to sign off on CMHC and CCBHC licensure applications

Michelle Calvert, executive director of Comcare, told the Sedgwick County staff meeting that Comcare is licensed as a community mental health center (CMHC) and became a certified community behavioral health clinic (CCBHC) in 2022, and asked the commission to sign off on CMHC and CCBHC license applications that will appear on the commission’s consent agenda the following day.

Calvert said the CMHC designation makes Comcare “the public behavioral health safety net for our community,” providing crisis response, case management, therapy and medication management, and that CCBHC certification expanded mobile crisis teams, peer supports and care coordination. She told commissioners the two-year relicensure cycle requires staff to work through roughly 150 pages of CMHC state regulations and about 65 pages of CCBHC criteria and noted Comcare’s recent accreditations for 988 phone/chat/text services, which require additional staff training and reporting.

“There is no cost involved in the application process,” Calvert said, and she emphasized that losing licensure would “completely change our ability to provide these services.” She also said CCBHC status enables access to KDADS funding and reimbursement mechanisms but that rates and specific reimbursement policies are set at the state level.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about whether licenses are organizational or individual (Calvert said Comcare holds organizational licensure while clinicians maintain personal credentials), what 988 accreditation entails, and whether licensure guarantees funding. County and Comcare staff said licensure enables access to funding but that statewide reimbursement codes and PPS rates remain subject to state rulemaking; staff noted KDADS has convened a work group to review billing codes and payment methodology.

The presentation concluded with staff asking the commission to approve placing the licensure applications on the consent agenda for formal sign-off at the next meeting. No formal vote occurred at the staff meeting itself.

Next steps: The commission will consider the applications on the consent agenda at the next scheduled meeting; staff said they would bring the required application forms forward for signature.