Bills › 91st General Assembly
Relating to subacute mental health care facilities and services, and including effective date provisions
Topics:Health care
Where it is now
- Done: IntroducedJanuary 27, 2026
- Done: SubcommitteeJanuary 28, 2026
- Done: Senate committeeFebruary 3, 2026
- Done: Passes the SenateApril 1, 202646–0
- Skipped: House committeeSkipped
- Done: Passes the HouseMarch 2, 202689–0
- Done: To the GovernorMay 2, 2026
- Done: Signed into lawMay 2, 2026
Became SF 2202 → Its progress continues under the new number. Go to SF 2202 What’s a funnel?
What’s in it
This bill relates to subacute mental health care (SMHC) facilities and services. The bill eliminates the requirement that SMHC must be limited to a period of calendar days unless a longer period of time is adopted by the department of health and human services (HHS). The bill requires a subacute care facility to develop a written treatment care plan with a resident within hours of the resident’s admission to the subacute care facility. _____ The bill requires, upon a mental health professional’s request for prior authorization (request) for insurance coverage of an individual’s subacute mental health care service, a managed care organization to provide a determination to the mental health professional within hours after the date of the receipt of the request if the request is urgent; within calendar days after the date of the receipt of the request if the request is nonurgent; and within calendar days after the date of the receipt of the request if the request is nonurgent and involves complex or unique circumstances.
Read the full explanation
The bill directs HHS and the department of inspections, appeals, and licensing (DIAL) to collaborate to review each department’s administrative rules and eliminate any rule the departments determine impedes the establishment of new subacute mental health care facilities and services; expansion of existing subacute mental health care facilities and services; or ease of access to subacute mental health care facilities and services. The bill requires HHS and DIAL to modify their respective rules to allow a subacute mental health care facility to have more beds to provide subacute mental health care without being considered a mental health institution. The bill requires HHS and DIAL to modify their respective rules so that the requirements to employ an individual at a subacute mental health care facility are less stringent than those for the same employment at a state mental health institute. The bill allows HHS and DIAL to adopt emergency rules to implement the bill. The bill takes effect upon enactment.
From the explanation printed with the bill as introduced, written by the Legislative Services Agency. Changed since by amendments S-5145, S-5061; see Amendments. Full bill text · What changed before it passed
Senate subcommittee
Named January 28, 2026. On January 29, 2026 it recommended amendment and passage.
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Iowa Code it changes
Creates§135G.3A
Read from the bill as introduced. Each links to every bill touching that chapter of the Iowa Code. How the Code works
Lobbying
10 for · 3 against · 29 undecided · Who →
Family tree
Where this legislation came from and where it went: earlier tries, the versions it moved through this Assembly, and later bills built on it.
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