MHAC Priority Legislation

MHAC Position: Support

Author: Holden

Date: 04/12/2024

This bill would require a plan or insurer to annually audit and delete inaccurate listings from its provider directories, and would require a provider directory to be 60% accurate on January 1, 2024, with increasing required percentage accuracy benchmarks to be met each year until the directories are 95% accurate on or before January 1, 2027. The bill would subject a plan or insurer to administrative penalties for failure to meet the prescribed benchmarks and for each inaccurate listing in its directories. If a plan or insurer has not financially compensated a provider in the prior year, the bill would require the plan or insurer to delete the provider from its directory beginning July 1, 2024, unless specified criteria applies. The bill would require a plan or insurer to provide information about in-network providers to enrollees and insureds upon request, and would limit the cost-sharing amounts an enrollee or insured is required to pay for services from those providers under specified circumstances. Because a violation of the bill’s requirements by a health care service plan would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

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MHAC Position: Support

Author: Quirk-Silva

Date: 08/26/2022

Status: Vetoed

Integrated school-based behavioral health partnership program: This bill would establish the Integrated School-Based Behavioral Health Partnership Program, to provide access to behavioral health services for pupils. The bill would authorize a county behavioral health agency and the governing body of a local educational agency to agree to collaborate on conducting a needs assessment and implement an integrated school-based behavioral health partnership program. The bill would require a county behavioral health agency to provide, through its own staff or through its network of contracted community-based organizations, one or more behavioral health professionals to serve pupils who have serious emotional disturbances or substance use disorders, or who are at risk of developing a serious behavioral health condition. The bill would require the local educational agency to provide school- based locations. For privately insured students, the partnership program is required to contact the private plan before initiating or during an assessment to determine if the student needs an urgent or nonurgent appointment and to facilitate a referral. If the private plan is able to provide an urgent appointment within 48 hours, or a nonurgent appointment within 15 business days, the program will facilitate the referral to the private plan’s network providers If appointments are not available in these timeframes, the behavioral health professional will complete the brief intervention services. If the pupil requires additional behavioral health services, and the plan cannot meet timely access standards for care delivery, the private plan and the county behavioral health agency would negotiate a single case agreement for reimbursement.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Rodriguez

Date: 09/27/2022

Mental health: Office of Suicide Prevention: Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to establish the Office of Suicide Prevention within the department. Existing law authorizes the office to perform certain functions including, but not limited to, conducting state-level assessment of regional and statewide suicide prevention policies and practices and reporting on progress to reduce rates of suicide. This bill would authorize the office to additionally conduct local-level assessments of regional suicide prevention policies and practices, and would include emergency medical personnel and firefighters as a high- risk group. Existing law requires the office to consult with the MHSOAC to implement suicide prevention efforts. This bill would require the office to consult with the Office of Emergency Services to implement suicide prevention efforts for emergency medical personnel and firefighters throughout the states’ municipal fire service agencies and fire districts, and to solicit proposals for, and to contract for, an evidence-based curriculum to establish behavioral health peer-support programs for emergency medical personnel, local fire service agencies, and fire districts.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Carrillo

Date: 09/19/2022

Status: Passed

Pupil mental health: mental health assistance posters: This bill would require on or before the start of the 2023-24 school year, each schoolsite serving pupils in grades 6 to 12 must create a poster that identifies approaches and shares resources regarding pupil mental health. Each poster would be at least 8.5 by 11 inches and must include identification of common behaviors of those struggling with mental health, a list of schoolsite-specific resources, a list of positive coping strategies to use, and a list of negative coping strategies to avoid. The bill would require the poster to be prominently and conspicuously displayed at each schoolsite. The poster shall also be digitized and distributed online to pupils through social media, internet websites,portals, and learning platforms.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Stone

Date: 06/24/2021

Status: Died

Foster youth: children’s crisis continuum pilot program: This bill would require DSS, in collaboration with DHCS and with input from certain stakeholders to establish a 5-year Children’s Crisis Continuum Pilot Program (CCC Pilot Program) for the purpose of developing treatment options needed to support California’s commitment to eliminate the placement of foster youth with complex needs in out-of-state facilities. Requires a participating entity to develop and implement a highly integrated continuum of care for foster youth with high acuity mental health needs, with specified services. The continuum of care must include: 1) a crisis stabilization unit; 2) a crisis residential program; 3) an inpatient psychiatric health facility; 4) intensive services foster care with integrated specialty mental health services; 5) community-based supportive services available 24/7

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Waldron

Date: 04/12/2024

This bill would require the California Health and Human Services Agency to convene a workgroup to study and make recommendations on the establishment of a framework governing psychedelic-assisted therapy, as defined. The bill would require that workgroup to send a report to the Legislature containing those recommendations on or before January 1, 2026. The bill would, contingent upon the Legislature enacting a framework governing psychedelic-assisted therapy,  authorize the lawful use of hallucinogenic or psychedelic substances for psychedelic-assisted therapy.

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MHAC Position: Support, MHAC Sponsored

Author: Bauer-Kahan

Date: 09/29/2022

Status: Passed

Mental health 988 Crisis Line: The National Suicide Hotline Designation Act designates the 3-digit telephone number “988” as the universal number within the United States for the purpose of the national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system operating through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. This bill would require California 988 centers, by July 16, 2022, to provide a person experiencing a behavioral health crisis access to a trained counselor by call, and by January 1, 2027, provide access to a trained counselor by call, text, and chat. The bill would require mobile crisis teams, as defined, to respond to any individual in need of immediate suicidal or behavioral health crisis intervention in a timely manner in all jurisdictions, and would require any call made to 911 pertaining to a clearly articulated suicidal or behavioral health crisis to be transferred to a 988 center. The bill would require 988 centers to provide follow-up services to individuals accessing 988 consistent with guidance and policies established by the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and within specified timelines. This bill will also establish a monthly fee on mobile phone and landline bills, similar to a fee charged for 911, to fund the 988 system.

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Related Documents

• Bill Fact Sheet

MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Irwin

Date: 04/12/2024

This bill would revise the definition of “psychiatric emergency medical condition” to make that definition applicable regardless of whether the patient is voluntary, or is involuntarily detained for evaluation and treatment. treatment, under prescribed circumstances. The bill would make conforming changes to provisions requiring facilities to provide that treatment. The bill would require the Medi-Cal program to cover emergency services and care necessary to treat an emergency medical condition, as defined, including all professional physical, mental, and substance use treatment services, including screening examinations necessary to determine the presence or absence of an emergency medical condition and, if an emergency medical condition exists, for all services medically necessary to stabilize the beneficiary. The bill would require coverage, including by a Medi-Cal managed care plan, for emergency services necessary to relieve or eliminate a psychiatric emergency medical condition, regardless of duration, or whether the beneficiary is voluntary, or involuntarily detained for evaluation and treatment, including emergency room professional services. services, as specified.

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MHAC Position: Support

Author: Jackson

Date: 04/12/2024

This bill would require a physician and surgeon, a general acute care hospital, a health care service plan, and a health insurer to provide to each legal guardian of a patient, enrollee, or insured, 10 to 18 years of age, a written or electronic notice regarding the benefits of a behavioral health and wellness screening. The bill would require the providers to provide the notice at least once every 2 years in the preferred method of the legal guardian. Because a violation of the bill’s requirements relative to health care service plans and health facilities would be crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require a Medi-Cal managed care plan to include the above-described notice requirement in their outreach and education plan.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Quirk-Silva

Date: 04/12/2024

This bill would authorize counties to also establish mental health multidisciplinary personnel team, as defined, with the goal of facilitating the expedited identification, assessment, and linkage of justice-involved persons diagnosed with a mental illness to supportive services within that county while incarcerated and upon release from county jail and to allow provider agencies and members of the personnel team to share confidential information, as specified, for the purpose of coordinating supportive services to ensure continuity of care. The bill would require the sharing of information permitted under these provisions to be governed by protocols developed in each county, as specified, and would require each county to provide a copy of its protocols to the State Department of Social Services. This bill would authorize the mental health multidisciplinary personnel team to designate qualified persons to be a member of the team for a particular case and would require every member who receives information or records regarding justice-involved persons, as defined, in their capacity as a member of the team to be under the same privacy and confidentiality obligations and subject to the same confidentiality penalties as the person disclosing or providing the information or records. The bill would also require the information or records to be maintained in a manner that ensures the maximum protection of privacy and confidentiality rights.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Bryan

Date: 02/07/2022

Status: Died

Reentry housing and workforce development program: Upon appropriation, this bill would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to create the Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program, and would require the department to take specified actions to provide grants to applicants for innovative or evidence-based housing, housing-based services, and employment interventions to allow people with recent histories of incarceration to exit homelessness and remain stably housed.

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MHAC Position: Support

Author: Reyes

Date: 04/12/2024

This bill would prohibit a medical service plan and a health insurer from subjecting a naloxone product or another opioid antagonist approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, or a buprenorphine product or long-acting injectable naltrexone for detoxification or maintenance treatment of a substance use disorder, to prior authorization or step therapy. Because a willful violation of these provisions by a health care service plan would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Levine

Date: 08/29/2022

Status: Vetoed

Mental health services: This bill would require a health care service plan or a health insurance policy that includes coverage for mental health services to, among other things, approve the provision of mental health services for persons who are detained for 72-hour treatment and evaluation under the LPS Act and to schedule an initial outpatient appointment for that person with a licensed mental health professional on a date within 48 hours of the person’s release from detention.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Ward

Date: 09/25/2022

Status: Passed

Substance abuse treatment: certification: Existing law requires DHCS to require that a person providing counseling services within alcoholism or drug abuse recovery be registered with or certified by a certifying organization approved by the department. This requirement discourages qualified graduate student interns participating in supervised internships affiliated with graduate university programs in psychology, social work, marriage and family therapy, or counseling from working in SUD treatment programs by also requiring them to register with a certifying organization as if they were on the career path to become a certified SUD counselor. This bill would change statute to allow these qualified graduate student interns to complete their supervised internships at SUD treatment programs.

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Related Documents

• Bill Fact Sheet
• Template Support Letter

MHAC Position: Support

Author: Arambula

Date: 08/29/2022

Status: Vetoed

Prior authorization and step therapy: Existing law permits a health care provider or prescribing provider to appeal a denial of a step therapy exception request for coverage of a nonformulary drug, a prior authorization request, or a step therapy exception request, consistent with the current utilization management processes of the health care service plan or health insurer. Existing law also permits an enrollee or insured, or the enrollee’s or insured’s designee or guardian, to appeal a denial of a step therapy exception request for coverage of a nonformulary drug, prior authorization request, or step therapy exception request by filing a grievance under a specified provision, formulary drug, prior authorization request, or step therapy exception request. This bill would require a health care service plan’s or health insurer’s utilization management process to ensure that an appeal of a denial of an exception request is reviewed by a clinical peer of the health care provider or prescribing provider, as specified. The bill would require health care service plans and health insurers that require step therapy or prior authorization to maintain specified information, including, but not limited to, the number of exception requests for coverage of a nonformulary drug, step therapy exception requests, and prior authorization exception requests received by the plan or insurer, and, upon request, to provide the information in a deidentified format to the department or commissioner, as appropriate.

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Related Documents

• Bill Fact Sheet