BHSA Policy Updates
Update: On April 3, 2026, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) released an updated version of the Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) County Policy Manual (“Policy Manual”). The Policy Manual is updated to include Phase 2 Measures and Module 4, which were released for Public Comment in November 2025. Policy Manual Updates include:
Revisions to ensure a higher standard of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including:
Removing statutory and regulatory links and replacing with in-text, pinpoint citations.
Updating anchor text for links to sections within the Policy Manual.
Updating tables to eliminate merged rows.
Addition of new language:
Chapter 9. BHSA Oversight and Enforcement
Appendix E: Behavioral Health Services Act Biennial Early Intervention Evidence-Based Practices and Community-Defined Evidence-Based Practices List
Appendix F: Acronym List
Added language in the Help Center, Navigating the BHSA Policy Manual to describe Accessing the Cited Statutes and Regulations
In addition, DHCS made changes to the following sections of the existing Policy Manual:
Chapter 2.C Statewide Vision for Behavioral Health Quality and Equity
Added language to clarify Phase 1 Performance Measures from Phase 2.
Added language describing how performance measures are calculated and how they will be used.
Added the Phase 2 BHT Performance Measures.
Chapter 3.E Guidance for Completing the Integrated Plan
Added language to clarify FSP exemption request criteria.
Chapter 7.A Behavioral Health Services and Supports
Added language to describe how the BHSA Biennial Early Intervention Evidence-Based Practices and Community-Defined Evidence Practices List was developed, how the list is organized, and how it will be updated.
Chapter 7.B Full Service Partnership
Added foundational requirements for FSP Evidence-Based Practices.
Added language to clarify FSP exemption request criteria.
Added a description of Innovative Behavioral Health Pilots and Projects.
Chapter 7.C Housing Interventions
Added a description of Innovative Behavioral Health Pilots and Projects.
For questions, please email BHTPolicyFeedback@dhcs.ca.gov.
Previous Update: On March 6, 2026, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) released draft versions of the Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) County Policy Manual (“Policy Manual”) Module 5 and accompanying documents including a draft BHSA Annual Update and Intermittent Update Template and draft Integrated Plan Budget Template (Version 3), which incorporates improvements based on prior stakeholder feedback. The feedback period is from March 6, 2026, to March 27, 2026.
If you have trouble providing your comments, please reach out to BHTPolicyFeedback@dhcs.ca.gov. You may notice gaps in section numbering – this is intentional and reflects the contents already finalized or still under review/finalization.
Previous Update: On February 24th, 2026, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) removed the Integrated Plan (IP) Budget Template Version 2 from the Download Resources page. The current version of the IP Budget Template (V.3) is now available to the relevant Cities and Counties in the county support center.
Previous Update: On October 30th, 2025, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) released updated versions of the Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) County Policy Manual (“Policy Manual”), BHSA Integrated Plan Template, County Population-Level Behavioral Health Measure Workbook, and County Population-Level Behavioral Health Measure Workbook – Measure Access Instructions & Notes.
The revised versions have been updated on the Download Resources page. The updates include the following:
Policy Manual (Version 1.3.2.):
Revisions were made to ensure a higher standard of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including:
Removing footnote text that may disrupt screen reader navigation
Consolidating important information directly into the main text to improve accessibility
Streamlining document structure for more consistent reading order
BHSA Integrated Plan Template:
Updated numeric fields to accept responses with decimal points.
Added an “N/A” option to the Statewide Behavioral Health Goals question “How does your county status compare to the statewide rate?”
Added question to “Medications for Addiction Treatment (MAT) Details” sub-section to Behavioral Health Service Act/Fund Programs, Full Service Partnership Program to align with County Portal.
Revised Integrated Plan template language to align with County Portal functionality.
Made other technical edits to address feedback from County Portal users.
BHSA Integrated Plan Budget Template:
Changes to Budget Sheet Tab 10. BHSA_Summary. Formula updated to avoid double counting of MHSA unspent carryover funds
Changes to Budget Sheet Tab 7. BHSS. BHSS EI Threshold calculation should exclude MHSA transferred WET and CFTN funds as they are exempt from suballocation requirements, formula revised to remove WET and CFTN. Added a BHSS transfer to WET/CFTN for reversion tracking.
Changes to Budget Sheet Tab 8. BHSA_PlanAdmin. Updated instructions to clarify DHCS will not pre-populate data for "Total Projected Annual Revenues of BHSF". Counties must enter in the data.
Added unspent MHSA funds row for year 1, 2 and 3 for all component tabs.
Added separate rows for unspent MHSA WET/CFTN expenditures.
Fixed formula and instruction errors.
County Population-Level Behavioral Health Measure Workbook:
Added county-specific rates for the California Consumer Perception Survey (CPS) and the Quality Domain Score Treatment Perception Survey (TPS) measures included in the “County Snapshot”, “Care Experience”, “Social Connection”, and “Quality of Life” (QoL) tabs.
Updated the “School” tab to include 2023 – 2024 county-specific rates for the Student Chronic Absenteeism Rate measure.
Made additional technical updates to better align the measure names with publicly available dashboards/reports.
County Population-Level Behavioral Health Measure Workbook – Measure Access Instructions & Notes
Added additional notes and clarifying text to improve usability and streamline navigation to public dashboards/reports.
Made technical updates to better align the measure names with publicly available dashboards/reports.
For questions, please email BHTPolicyFeedback@dhcs.ca.gov.