Relating to subacute mental health care facilities and services, and including effective date provisions

This bill relates to mental health care. The bill eliminates the requirement that subacute mental health care (SMHC) must be limited to a period of 10 calendar days unless a longer period of time is adopted by the department of health and human services (HHS). The bill requires an SMHC facility to develop a written treatment care plan with a resident within 24 hours of the resident’s admission to the SMHC facility. The bill prohibits a preauthorization requirement for an individual’s admission to an SMHC facility or for the first 15 consecutive calendar days of a resident’s treatment. Starting from the date of a resident’s first day of treatment, on or after a resident’s 45th consecutive day of treatment, a managed care organization (MCO) may review the medical necessity of the resident’s treatment. After the initial review of a resident’s treatment, an MCO may only review the medical necessity of the resident’s treatment a maximum of one time within any consecutive 30-calendar-day period. The bill prohibits an MCO from requiring a resident’s discharge until the mental health professional providing supervision of the resident’s treatment care plan has determined that there are proper supports in place prior to the resident’s discharge to mitigate the risk of the patient committing self-harm or the patient harming other individuals. The bill defines “health carrier” and requires a health carrier to provide coverage for SMHC services provided by an SMHC facility. A health carrier that violates the bill is subject to a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for each violation of the bill, up to an aggregate of $10,000, unless the person knew or reasonably should have known the person was in violation of the bill, in which case the penalty is up to $5,000 for each violation, up to an aggregate of $50,000 in any one six-month period. The bill requires HHS to establish an electronic system to track the availability of beds at each psychiatric medical institution for children. The bill directs HHS and the department of inspections, appeals, and licensing (DIAL) to collaborate to review each department’s rules and eliminate any rule the departments determine impedes the establishment of new SMHC facilities and services; expansion of existing SMHC facilities and services; or ease of access to SMHC facilities and services. The bill directs DIAL to adopt rules to increase the maximum number of beds an SMHC facility may have without the SMHC facility being defined as a state mental health institute, and provide that requirements applicable to an SMHC facility, and SMHC facility employees, are less stringent than comparable requirements that apply to a state mental health institute or a state mental health institute’s employees. The bill allows HHS and DIAL to adopt emergency rules to implement the bill. The bill takes effect upon enactment.