Baltimore Mental Health Systems, Inc. (BMHS) is the Core Service Agency or mental health authority for Baltimore City. BMHS plans and manages Baltimore’s Public Mental Health System. The public mental health system is a network of predominately private nonprofit providers that deliver services to over 30,000 Baltimore City residents each year who are Medicaid and/or Medicare recipients or are uninsured. BMHS is responsible for identifying local service needs and developing plans to meet those needs.
BMHS operates under the auspices of the Maryland Mental Hygiene Administration (MHA), which is an office within the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene responsible for delivery of services within the State’s Public Mental Health System (PMHS). The State's PMHS began on July 1, 1997 when Maryland initiated a fee-for-service managed care model for the delivery of public mental health services. Before July 1, 1997, mental health services in Maryland were grant-funded and primarily offered through local Health Departments. During the late 1980's and throughout the 1990's, private provider organizations began taking on additional responsibilities for the delivery of mental health services for uninsured consumers.
ValueOptions is the Administrative Services Organization, a private managed care organization, that determines consumer eligibility, issues authorizations for services, conducts utilization reviews of services, collects data and submits reports, processes billing claims, and remits payments to providers on behalf of the Mental Hygiene Administration and Core Service Agencies.
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