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  • The Most Effective Community Mental Health Clinic Model Just Received More Than 3 Million in New Federal Funding

    The Most Effective Community Mental Health Clinic Model Just Received More Than $223 Million in New Federal Funding

    The most evidence-based community mental health delivery model in the United States just received its largest single infusion of federal funding in years. On June 17, 2026, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced more than $700 million in new behavioral health investments — including $223.1 million specifically for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) — during a visit to an Easterseals MORC CCBHC clinic in Clinton Township, Michigan.

    The announcement also introduced the STREETS program ($96 million), designed to connect people experiencing homelessness to addiction and mental health treatment, and $211.1 million to improve local 988 crisis line capacity. The total package represents one of the most significant federal investments in community behavioral health since the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022.

    Why This Matters

    The United States faces a profound mental health and substance use disorder crisis that costs lives and strains emergency rooms, jails, hospitals, and families. More than 57 million adults in the U.S. experienced a mental illness in the past year, and more than 28 million had a substance use disorder. Fewer than half of those with mental illness received any treatment.

    The CCBHC model was specifically designed to close that gap. Unlike traditional outpatient mental health clinics that operate on business hours and serve only those who can afford to wait, CCBHCs must provide same-day care regardless of patients’ ability to pay, 24-hour mobile crisis response, integrated treatment for both mental illness and substance use disorders, peer support services, and primary care screening.

    And unlike many promising models in mental health, CCBHCs have been rigorously studied — and the evidence works.

    What We Know So Far

    According to SAMHSA’s grants dashboard, the $223.1 million for CCBHCs breaks down as $94 million for CCBHC Planning, Development, and Implementation grants and $117.1 million for CCBHC Improvement and Advancement grants, plus $12 million for state planning grants. Individual clinic grants can reach up to $1 million per year.

    The HHS announcement specifically framed the investment as part of President Trump’s Great American Recovery Initiative, an anti-addiction and mental health policy platform.

    “Every community deserves access to effective behavioral health services that help people prevent addiction, achieve recovery, address mental health challenges, and respond to crises,” said Christopher D. Carroll, principal deputy assistant secretary of SAMHSA. “Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics are a cornerstone of this effort, providing comprehensive, community-based care that helps people sustain recovery and rebuild their lives.”

    What the CCBHC Model Requires

    To be certified as a CCBHC, a clinic must meet nine mandatory service requirements established under Section 223 of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 and made permanent under the 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act. Those requirements include:

    • 24-hour mobile crisis response
    • Same-day outpatient mental health and substance use treatment
    • Screening, assessment, and diagnosis
    • Primary care screening and monitoring for chronic disease
    • Peer support and family support services
    • Targeted case management
    • Psychiatric rehabilitation
    • Community-based mental health care for veterans
    • Services for individuals experiencing a substance use disorder, including opioid use disorder

    The requirement that no patient be turned away due to inability to pay — and that same-day care must be available — distinguishes CCBHCs from most mental health providers in the current system.

    Where the Impact Would Be Greatest

    CCBHCs are concentrated in communities that have historically had the least access to behavioral health care: rural areas, low-income urban neighborhoods, and communities with significant populations of people experiencing homelessness, substance use disorders, or co-occurring mental illness and medical conditions.

    The CCBHC Medicaid Demonstration Program — which provides enhanced federal Medicaid funding to states that implement the model — now includes 10 new states following a June 2024 expansion round. Colorado submitted a new CCBHC Demonstration application in March 2026, reflecting growing state-level interest in the program.

    States that have implemented the CCBHC Demonstration have seen measurable improvements in access to care, including reductions in emergency department visits and psychiatric hospitalizations for participating patients.

    What Doctors and Experts Say

    Research on the CCBHC model has consistently shown reductions in emergency department visits, reduced psychiatric hospitalizations, improved treatment retention for both mental illness and substance use disorder, and better coordination between behavioral health and primary care.

    According to SAMHSA, the CCBHC Improvement and Advancement grants are designed to “enhance and improve CCBHCs that currently meet the CCBHC Certification Criteria,” recognizing that existing clinics benefit from sustained investment to maintain the demanding services the model requires.

    The announcement of the STREETS program — which specifically focuses on moving people from the streets into treatment and recovery — reflects the connection between untreated mental illness, substance use disorder, and homelessness that advocates have long documented.

    What the Evidence Shows — and What It Does Not

    The CCBHC model has been studied more rigorously than most community mental health approaches. Multiple evaluations of the original eight-state CCBHC Demonstration Program, which began in 2017, documented reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations, improved access to care in underserved communities, increased treatment retention, and greater integration between behavioral health and primary care.

    The model is not a cure for the U.S. mental health crisis. There are not enough CCBHCs to serve the full population that needs them. The certification process takes 12 to 18 months, meaning new grants announced today will not produce new clinics immediately. And the model requires ongoing federal and state funding to maintain its elevated service requirements — making it more vulnerable to funding disruptions than simpler models.

    Who Faces the Greatest Risk Without Access?

    Communities and individuals most in need of CCBHC services include:

    • Adults with serious mental illness who lack insurance or are enrolled in Medicaid
    • People with co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorders
    • Veterans with PTSD, depression, or substance use disorders
    • People experiencing homelessness or housing instability
    • Residents of rural counties without local psychiatric care
    • Children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance

    What You Can Do Now

    • Check whether a CCBHC is available in your community. SAMHSA maintains a behavioral health treatment services locator at findtreatment.gov.
    • If you or someone you know is in a mental health or substance use crisis, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. The June 17 announcement also included $211.1 million for 988 capacity expansion.
    • If you are a mental health provider or community organization interested in CCBHC certification, contact your state behavioral health authority for information on the certification process.
    • Patients currently enrolled in Medicaid can ask their caseworker whether CCBHC services are available in their plan.

    Cost and Access: What Patients Should Know

    CCBHCs are required to serve patients regardless of their ability to pay. For uninsured patients, CCBHCs operate on a sliding scale and may coordinate with other federal programs including Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program services, substance use block grants, and community health centers.

    Most CCBHC services are billable to Medicaid, and the CCBHC Demonstration provides enhanced federal Medicaid matching rates to participating states, increasing the financial sustainability of the model.

    What Happens Next

    The grants announced June 17 will be awarded through SAMHSA’s competitive grant process over the coming months. New CCBHC Planning, Development, and Implementation grantees will spend their first year building toward certification, with the goal of becoming fully certified CCBHCs and eventually Medicaid Demonstration participants. MedicalDaily will track the expansion of CCBHC capacity and 988 upgrades as new clinics come online.

    The Bottom Line

    The CCBHC model works, and it just received its largest federal investment in years. These clinics provide same-day psychiatric care, round-the-clock crisis response, and integrated addiction treatment to the communities that need it most — without turning anyone away for inability to pay. For the millions of Americans who cannot access mental health care today, this funding represents a meaningful step toward closing the gap. The next step is getting people through the doors.

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  • ACA Enrollment Fraud Now Tops 6 Million — And Taxpayers Are Footing a Billion Bill

    ACA Enrollment Fraud Now Tops 6 Million — And Taxpayers Are Footing a $27 Billion Bill

    A sweeping new report released today confirms what critics of the Affordable Care Act have warned for years: millions of ineligible individuals are receiving federally subsidized health coverage, draining tens of billions in public funds through a system riddled with structural loopholes and almost no accountability.

    6.2M+
    Improper enrollees (2026 est.)    		 $27B
    Annual taxpayer cost (2025)    		 ~96%
    Fake GAO apps approved (2024-25)

    In what is shaping up to be one of the most significant federal health care accountability stories of the year, the Paragon Health Institute released findings today — confirmed by The Washington Post — estimating that roughly 6.2 million people on the ACA’s health insurance exchanges are improperly enrolled in subsidized coverage. That figure represents approximately one in four of all exchange enrollees, according to the think tank’s analysis.

    The report lands as Congress continues debating the future of COVID-era enhanced subsidies that have ballooned ACA enrollment numbers — numbers now called into serious question by researchers, federal watchdogs, and the courts alike.

    “Roughly a quarter of all ACA exchange enrollees may be receiving coverage they are not entitled to — paid for by American taxpayers.”

    — Paragon Health Institute, June 2026

    HOW IT HAPPENED

    The story of ACA fraud is inseparable from the pandemic. When Congress passed enhanced subsidies in 2021 that effectively made silver and bronze plans free for low-income enrollees, brokers and insurers quickly found ways to exploit the windfall. Income verification requirements were loosened. Enrollment could be triggered through Direct Enrollment pathways with minimal scrutiny. And crucially, the financial penalty for overstating income — and thus receiving excess subsidies — was capped so low it created almost no deterrent.

    The result, according to Paragon’s research, was a surge in fraudulent sign-ups driven by three overlapping groups: enrollees who deliberately misstated their income; unscrupulous brokers who falsified applications to earn commissions; and a class of enrollees who were signed up entirely without their knowledge or consent, with insurers and agents pocketing the subsidy payments.

    The scale of that last category is particularly alarming. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data show that nearly 12 million ACA enrollees — 35% of all exchange participants — filed zero medical claims in 2024, up from just 3.5 million in 2021. Researchers describe many of these as “phantom enrollees”: people who have no idea they are technically covered, or who have other insurance entirely.

    GOVERNMENT’S OWN TESTS CONFIRM THE HOLES

    The Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted two rounds of undercover testing — and the results were stunning. In the first round, GAO submitted four fictitious applications for plan year 2024 using invalid Social Security numbers and fabricated identities. All four were approved, costing approximately $2,350 per month in fraudulent subsidies. In the second round, GAO submitted 20 fictitious applications for plan year 2025; 19 of the 20 were approved and, as of September 2025, 18 were still actively receiving subsidized coverage. Combined across both rounds, the exchange approved 23 of 24 fictitious applications — a 96% failure rate for basic fraud detection.

    The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) added its own corroboration, estimating 2.3 million improper enrollees just among those who overstated their income in the ten states that did not expand Medicaid — a fraction of the total picture. The CBO figure alone exceeds the total coverage losses Democrats claim will result from ending the enhanced subsidies, a point Republicans have seized upon in the ongoing budget debate.

    CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS MOUNT

    The fraud is not only a policy problem — it is increasingly a criminal one. In February 2025, a federal grand jury indicted Cory Lloyd and Steven Strong for a scheme that sought over $233 million in fraudulent ACA subsidies, of which the federal government paid at least $180 million. Both men targeted vulnerable, low-income individuals — including people experiencing homelessness, unemployment, and substance use disorders — and used street marketers who sometimes offered bribes to induce enrollment. Both were convicted by a federal jury in November 2025 and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison each, with $180.6 million in restitution ordered.

    In April 2026, the Department of Justice announced a separate but related resolution: AP of South Florida (APSF), the brokerage company where Lloyd had continued the scheme, agreed to plead guilty to one count of major fraud against the United States. The federal government had paid $141.5 million in unwarranted subsidies through APSF. In a parallel civil resolution, APSF’s parent company AssuredPartners agreed to pay $135 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations. The combined settlement exceeds $160 million. Court documents revealed that APSF employees stationed street marketers at homeless shelters, bus stops, and drug treatment clinics — sometimes offering cash or gift cards to obtain personal information. Some victims subsequently lost Medicaid access and faced increased costs for HIV medication, opioid treatment, and mental health drugs.

    FLORIDA: GROUND ZERO

    Florida has emerged as the leading state for ACA enrollment fraud. A Paragon county-level analysis found that in nearly every Florida county, ACA enrollment exceeds the estimated eligible population — in some counties by more than eleven times. Note: independent health policy researchers, insurers, and hospital groups have disputed Paragon’s methodology, contending the fraud estimates may be overstated. The state’s combination of high poverty rates, large uninsured populations, and a dense network of commission-driven insurance brokers created conditions that, according to federal prosecutors, allowed large-scale fraud to operate for years.

    WHAT REFORM COULD LOOK LIKE

    Critics of the ACA say the path forward is straightforward but politically difficult: allow the pandemic-era enhanced subsidies to fully expire, raise the subsidy repayment caps that currently let overpaid enrollees keep the excess with little consequence, and restore meaningful income verification requirements at the point of enrollment. CMS under the current administration has signaled support for tighter controls, with Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz stating in mid-2025 that the agency is “restoring integrity to ACA exchanges by cracking down on fraud.”

    Defenders of the program argue the fraud figures are overstated and that any tightening of enrollment rules will disproportionately harm low-income Americans who legitimately need coverage — a tension that is now at the center of one of Washington’s defining health policy battles. What is no longer in dispute, after years of accumulating evidence from GAO, CBO, CMS, and federal prosecutors alike, is that billions of taxpayer dollars have flowed to people who were never supposed to receive them.

    TIMELINE

    2021–2022 Biden-era COVID subsidies introduced; income verification requirements loosened. Lloyd-Strong and APSF fraud schemes begin operating across Florida.
    June 2024 Paragon publishes ‘The Great Obamacare Enrollment Fraud,’ estimating 5.0 million improper enrollees in 2024 (revised upward to 5.1M in May 2026).
    Dec 2025 Enhanced COVID subsidies expire. GAO releases undercover results: 23 of 24 fictitious applications approved across plan years 2024–2025. Paragon documents 6.4M+ improper enrollees in 2025.
    Feb 2025 DOJ indicts Cory Lloyd and Steven Strong for a scheme seeking $233M+ in fraudulent ACA subsidies (at least $180M paid), targeting homeless individuals and people in treatment programs.
    Nov 2025 Both Lloyd and Strong convicted by federal jury; each sentenced to 20 years and ordered to pay $180.6M in restitution.
    Apr 2026 APSF pleads guilty; AssuredPartners pays $135M civil settlement. DOJ total exceeds $160M — one of the largest ACA fraud resolutions on record.
    Jun 2, 2026 Paragon releases updated estimates: 6.2M+ improper enrollees in 2026, confirmed by Washington Post. Congressional reform debate intensifies.

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  • From £100,000 House to £20 Million Empire

    From £100,000 House to £20 Million Empire

    When Samuel Leeds left school at seventeen with no qualifications and £50 in his pocket, no one could have predicted that within a decade he would build a £20 million property portfolio.

    His journey began in 2009 with a £100,000 house in the West Midlands. Using creative financing, he turned it into a house share that still earns him rent today.

    “That first deal changed everything,” he says. “It gave me confidence. I realised I didn’t have to work for someone else. I could build something myself.”

    Leeds’s career is a story of constant reinvention. From small buy-to-lets to lease options, HMOs, and finally large developments and hotels, each stage brought new challenges.

    He openly shares his failures, including the costly renovation of Ribbesford House, a Grade II* listed castle that taught him about resilience and planning battles. “That project nearly broke me,” he admits. “But it also made me sharper.”

    Today, his portfolio includes multiple hotels, developments, and long-term social housing projects. He mentors thousands of investors through his academy, teaching them the creative methods that allowed him to build wealth without large savings.

    “People think property is about buildings,” he says. “It’s really about people and persistence. If you help enough people, the money follows.”

    His story has been featured by outlets including GB News and TalkTV, and his book Buy Low Rent High remains a bestseller among new investors.

    For young entrepreneurs looking for proof that financial freedom is still possible, Leeds’s story stands as one of the most compelling in Britain today.



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  • Trump Admin Set to Burn Million of Birth Control Instead of Distributing It: Report

    Trump Admin Set to Burn $10 Million of Birth Control Instead of Distributing It: Report

    Nearly $10 million worth of contraceptives already paid for by the US are en route from Belgium to France for incineration.

    The pills, intrauterine devices and condoms have been held at a warehouse in Antwerp, Belgium, since January, following President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze foreign aid. The family planning supplies will be burnt in France following transport — an operation that will cost taxpayers an additional $167,000, according to a state department spokesperson who confirmed the decision with The Guardian.

    The administration has reportedly denied offers from family planning organizations and the United Nations to purchase and distribute the supplies to women in need. According to MSI Reproductive Choices associate director of advocacy Sarah Shaw, the government would only accept full price for the products, which her global family planning organization could not afford on top of transport.

    “It’s not just about an empty shelf,” Shaw told the Guardian. “It’s about unfulfilled potential. It’s about a girl having to drop out of school. It’s about someone having to seek an unsafe abortion and risking their lives.”

    The halt in aid is part of a broader DOGE initiative dismantling USAID .

    Earlier this month, reports revealed the Trump administration’s plans to incinerate 500 metric tons of emergency food aid—enough to feed 1.5 million starving children in Gaza for a week. The food, stored in the UAE, was deemed expired but, according to career USAID staff, could still have been distributed safely.

    The freeze in aid has also delayed delivery of mpox vaccines promised to African countries experiencing outbreaks. A Politico report found nearly 800,000 doses will expire in less than six months, making them ineligible for shipment.

    Despite objections from humanitarian organizations who argue the rigid application of the administration’s policy is hurting vulnerable populations, the White House maintains that it is protecting taxpayer funds and adhering to legal restrictions on aid to agencies that offer abortion.

    Originally published on Latin Times

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