New Arkansas Law Aims To Ensure Insurance Plans Cover Crisis Stabilization Unit Services

A bill that aims to ensure services provided at Arkansas’s crisis stabilization units are covered by insurance plans was among the measures signed into law by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders during the recently recessed legislative session.

Crisis stabilization units serve as alternatives to jails and emergency rooms for people in crisis who encounter law enforcement. The units accept patients for short-term stabilization related to mental health and/or substance misuse.

Arkansas has three crisis stabilization units, located in Fort Smith, Jonesboro, and Little Rock. A fourth unit that was located in Fayetteville closed in 2024. Created under Act 423 of 2017, the units have 16 beds each, are staffed with mental health professionals and licensed nurses, and are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The units accept referrals from anywhere in the state.

Act 626 by Rep. Jeremy Wooldridge adds crisis stabilization units to the definition of “healthcare provider” under Arkansas’s “any willing provider law,” which prohibits insurers from excluding from their networks any healthcare providers willing to abide by their terms.

The new law also prohibits insurers from requiring prior authorization for the services provided by crisis stabilization units.

While presenting the bill in committee, Wooldridge described it as “good common sense.” The bill puts into law practices that Arkansas insurers have already been following, he said.

Studies examining the effectiveness of two of Arkansas’s crisis stabilization units have found evidence of reduced incarcerations among people treated at the units. A 2020 study by ACHI found that among people who were treated at the Sebastian County Crisis Stabilization Unit in Fort Smith in its first year of operation, the total number of days spent in jail in the six months after being treated decreased by 27.5% compared to the total number of days spent in jail in the six months before being treated.

A 2022 study published in Psychological Services looked at the impact of the Pulaski County Regional Crisis Stabilization Unit in Little Rock and found that for 11% of people treated in that facility’s first year of operation, jail bookings in the three months after treatment decreased compared to jail bookings in the three months before treatment. Jail bookings increased after treatment for only 4% of patients.