Relating to behavioral health services for children including psychiatric medical institutions for children

The invitation to bid shall offer a payment structure that provides enhanced reimbursement for a PMIC that meets the selection criteria and which may be used to provide increased staffing ratios, ongoing training of staff in specialized programs that provide evidence-based treatment, and appropriate services and modalities, including but not limited to telemedicine, for children and their families. The bill also requires HHS to review and update administrative rules regarding PMICs to allow physician assistants and advanced registered nurse practitioners to serve as a member of the plan of care team and to complete the certification of need for services for a PMIC placement; to remove the reserve bed day limitations for hospitalizations and expand the number of other therapeutic absences allowed; to allow licensed professionals, based on competencies rather than license type, to order the use of restraints or seclusions and to conduct post-restraint or seclusion assessments, including via telehealth, to increase response times and expand access to care; to require therapy and behavioral health intervention services as required services during a PMIC placement, to require family therapy and family behavioral health intervention services as required services during the placement of a child in a PMIC to prepare the family for the child’s return home, and to provide reimbursement codes to cover certain services beyond those provided outside the PMIC care team to support the child; to standardize certain activities across all managed care organizations; to allow for certain exceptions for PMICs to increase capacity without further certificate of need review; and to allow for step-down PMIC placements or supervised apartment living for a child.