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: MHAC Sponsored, Support

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: 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: 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: 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

MHAC Position: Support

Author: Cervantes

Date: 04/12/2024

This bill would require the program to conduct at least one maternal mental health screening during pregnancy, and at least one additional screening during the first 6 months of the postpartum period. Because a willful violation of these provisions 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: Salas

Date: 09/27/2022

Status: Vetoed

School-Based Health Center Support Program: Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health, in cooperation with the State Department of Education, to establish a Public School Health Center Support Program to assist school health centers, which are defined as centers or programs, located at or near local educational agencies, that provide age-appropriate health care services at the program site or through referrals, as specified. This bill would rename the program as the School-Based Health Center Support Program and would redefine a school-based health center to mean a student-focused health center or clinic that is located at or near a school or schools, is organized through school, community, and health provider relationships, and provides age-appropriate, clinical health care services onsite by qualified health professionals. The bill would authorize a school-based health center to provide primary medical care, behavioral health services, or dental care services onsite or through mobile health or telehealth. This bill would increase planning, startup, and sustainability grant amounts.Existing law requires the State Department of Education to establish an Office of School-Based Health Programs for the purpose of assisting local educational agencies regarding the current health-related programs under the purview of the department. This bill would require the office to work with the State Department of Public Health in supporting the School-Based Health Center Support Program.

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MHAC Position: Support

Author: Bonta

Date: 04/12/2024

This bill would, instead, require certain boards that regulate healing arts licensees or registrants to collect workforce data from their respective licensees or registrants, and would require that data to be required at the time of electronic license or registration renewal, as specified. The bill would, instead, require a licensee or registrant to provide the specified workforce data as a condition for license or registration renewal and would delete the provision that specifies that a licensee or registrant shall not be subject to discipline for not providing that information.

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MHAC Position: Support

Author: Arambula

Date: 08/25/2022

Status: Vetoed

Medi-Cal: behavioral health: individuals with vision loss: Would require the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to establish a pilot project to provide behavioral health services to Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are blind or have low vision, as a covered benefit under the Medi-Cal program.

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MHAC Position: Support

Author: Boerner

Date: 04/12/2024

This bill, until January 1, 2029, and upon appropriation by the Legislature for these purposes, would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to establish the Unicorn Homes Transitional Housing for Homeless LGBTQ+ Youth Program, to be administered by local community-based organizations that provide a majority of its services to the LGBTQ+ community. The bill would require the department to fund community-based organizations in up to 5 selected counties that provide transitional housing for LGBTQ+ youth, 18 to 24 years of age, inclusive, experiencing homelessness due to family rejection, with the ultimate goal of reunification with the youth’s original family. The bill would require the community-based organization to place eligible youth with volunteer host families who meet specified criteria, pursuant to the results of a background check, and who are able to provide crisis intervention with a trauma-informed approach, as defined, to their care. The bill would also require the program to comply with the existing core components of Housing First.

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MHAC Position: Support, MHAC Sponsored

Author: Bonta

Date: 04/12/2024

This bill would ratify and approve the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact, an interstate compact that is operational under its terms, to facilitate the practice of telepsychology and the temporary in-person, face-to-face practice of psychology across state boundaries.Under this bill, the compact would require this state, as a compact state, to recognize the right of a psychologist, licensed in a compact state in conformance with the compact, to practice telepsychology in other compact states in which the psychologist is not licensed, as provided in the compact. Under the bill, the compact would also require this state to recognize the right of a psychologist, licensed in a compact state in conformance with the compact, to practice temporarily in other compact states in which the psychologist is not licensed, as provided in the compact. Under the bill, the compact would require the board to appoint a commissioner to the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact Commission, a joint body with powers and responsibilities as established by the compact, including rulemaking authority, as prescribed.This bill would require the board to comply with the requirements of the compact and to adopt regulations as necessary to implement the compact. Under the bill, a person without a license granted under existing state law, but holding a privilege to practice under the compact, would not be prohibited from engaging in the practice of psychology or representing themselves to be a psychologist.

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MHAC Position: Support

Author: Gabriel

Date: 09/30/2022

Status: Passed

Mental health professionals: natural disasters: This bill would require, by November 1, 2024, county offices of education to develop a system for rapidly deploying qualified mental health professionals and other key school personnel employed by individual school districts and charter schools throughout the county to areas of the county that experienced a natural disaster or other traumatic event. The bill would require single school district county offices of education to enter into agreements with at least one other county office of education that they share a border with.

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MHAC Position: Support

Author: Choi

Date: 08/26/2022

Status: Passed

Public postsecondary education: mental health hotlines student identification cards: This bill would authorize each campus of the California State University, the California Community Colleges, and the University of California to establish a campus mental health hotline for students to access mental health services remotely. The bill would require each campus of the California State University and California Community colleges, and request each campus of the University of California, with a campus mental health hotline to have printed on either side of student identification cards the telephone number of the campus mental health hotline. Amended 3/9/22 to also require each CSU campus and each California Community College Campus, and request each campus of the University of California, without a campus mental health hotline to have printed on the student identification card the telephone number of their city or county’s mental health hotline.

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MHAC Position: Support, MHAC Sponsored

Author: Haney

Date: 04/17/2024

This bill would require the department to establish a 3-year pilot program at 2 or more institutions that would provide access to specified mental health therapy for those not classified by the department to receive mental health treatment from the institution. The bill would require communications during therapy sessions, as specified, between the incarcerated person and assigned therapist to be confidential. The bill would require the California Correctional Health Care Services to be the custodian of records for treatment records generated under this pilot program. The bill would require the department to report certain information to the fiscal and appropriate policy committees of the Legislature, from March 1, 2025, to March 1, 2027.

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