MHAC Priority Legislation

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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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Berman

Date: 04/18/2024

This bill would require a facility to which a person is brought for involuntary detention to provide a copy of the State Department of Health Care Services’ prepared patients’ rights handbook to a family member of the detained person, as specified. The bill would define “family member” for these purposes to include, among others, the spouse or domestic partner of the person and the parent or legal guardian of the person.

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MHAC Position: Support

Author: Arambula

Date: 04/18/2024

Existing law establishes the Early Psychosis Intervention Plus (EPI Plus) Program to encompass early psychosis and mood disorder detection and intervention. Existing law establishes the Early Psychosis and Mood Disorder Detection and Intervention Fund and makes the moneys in the fund available, upon appropriation, to the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. Existing law authorizes the commission to allocate moneys from that fund to provide grants to create or expand existing capacity for early psychosis and mood disorder detection and intervention services and supports.This bill would require the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission to consult with the State Department of Health Care Services and related state departments and entities, create a strategic plan to achieve specific goals, including improving the understanding of psychosis, as specified, and, no later than July 1, 2025, submit that strategic plan to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature. The bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to seek to partner with the University of California to develop a plan to establish a Center for Practice Innovations the Center for Mental Health Wellness and Innovations to, among other things, promote the widespread availability of evidence-based practices to improve behavioral health services. If the center is established, the bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services, no later than July 1, 2025, to submit the plan to create the center to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Dixon

Date: 04/18/2024

Existing law provides for the licensing and regulation of alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facilities, as defined, by the State Department of Health Care Services. This bill would make technical, non-substantive changes to a related provision.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Kalra

Date: 04/18/2024

This bill, the California Guaranteed Health Care for All Act, would create the California Guaranteed Health Care for All program, or CalCare, to provide comprehensive universal single-payer health care coverage and a health care cost control system for the benefit of all residents of the state. The bill, among other things, would provide that CalCare cover a wide range of medical benefits and other services and would incorporate the health care benefits and standards of other existing federal and state provisions, including the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medi-Cal, ancillary health care or social services covered by regional centers for persons with developmental disabilities, Knox-Keene, and the federal Medicare program. The bill would make specified persons eligible to enroll as CalCare members during the implementation period, and would provide for automatic enrollment. The bill would require the board to seek all necessary waivers, approvals, and agreements to allow various existing federal health care payments to be paid to CalCare, which would then assume responsibility for all benefits and services previously paid for with those funds. This bill would create the CalCare Board to govern CalCare, made up of 9 voting members with demonstrated and acknowledged expertise in health care, and appointed as provided, plus the Secretary of California Health and Human Services or their designee as a nonvoting, ex officio member. The bill would provide the board with all the powers and duties necessary to establish CalCare, including determining when individuals may start enrolling into CalCare, employing necessary staff, negotiating pricing for covered pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, establishing a prescription drug formulary, and negotiating and entering into necessary contracts. The bill would require the board, on or before July 1 of an unspecified year, to conduct and deliver a fiscal analysis to determine whether or not CalCare may be implemented and if revenue is more likely than not to pay for program costs, as specified. The bill would establish an Advisory Commission on Long-Term Services and Supports to advise the board on matters of policy related to long-term services and supports. The bill would require the board to convene a CalCare Public Advisory Committee to advise the board on all matters of policy for CalCare, an Advisory Committee on Public Employees’ Retirement System Health Benefits to provide recommendations related to public employee retiree health benefits, and a CalCare Health Workforce Working Group to provide the board with input on issues related to health care workforce education, recruitment, and retention. The bill would establish an Office of Health Equity within CalCare and under the direction of the Director of the Department of Health Care Access and Information to ensure health equity under the program and other health programs of the California Health and Human Services Agency and to support the board through specified actions. This bill would provide for the participation of health care providers in CalCare, including the requirements of a participation agreement between a health care provider and the board, provide for payment for health care items and services, and specify program participation standards. The bill would prohibit a participating provider from discriminating against a person by, among other things, reducing or denying a person’s benefits under CalCare because of a specified characteristic, status, or condition of the person.This bill would prohibit a participating provider from billing or entering into a private contract with an individual eligible for CalCare benefits regarding a covered benefit, but would authorize contracting for a health care item or service that is not a covered benefit if specified criteria are met. The bill would authorize health care providers to collectively negotiate fee-for-service rates of payment for health care items and services using a 3rd-party representative, as provided. The bill would require the board to annually determine an institutional provider’s global budget, to be used to cover operating expenses related to covered health care items and services for that fiscal year, and would authorize payments under the global budget. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would develop a revenue plan, taking into consideration anticipated federal revenue available for CalCare. The bill would create the CalCare Trust Fund in the State Treasury, as a continuously appropriated fund, consisting of any federal and state moneys received for the purposes of the act. The bill would specify uses for moneys in the CalCare budget, including special projects for which not-for-profit or governmental entities may apply. Because the bill would create a continuously appropriated fund, it would make an appropriation. This bill would prohibit specified provisions of this act from becoming operative until the Secretary of California Health and Human Services gives written notice to the Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Clerk of the Assembly that the CalCare Trust Fund has the revenues to fund the costs of implementing the act. The California Health and Human Services Agency would be required to publish a copy of the notice on its internet website. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Aguiar-Curry

Date: 04/18/2024

This bill would  require, when a child or youth 18 years of age or younger changes residence from one county to another, the receiving county to provide specialty mental health services while the receiving county conducts its investigation and casework transfer process, if specified conditions are met, including, but not limited to, that the child or youth has been identified by the county of original residence as high risk or coming from a vulnerable population. The bill also would  require the State Department of Health Care Services and the State Department of Social Services to collaborate to create a system of standardized communication between counties that respects the procedures of the receiving county and the needs of the child that is without mental health services, and requiring the State Department of Social Services to establish care teams to help counties coordinate and expedite the transfer between counties. By increasing duties of counties administering the Medi-Cal program, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

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MHAC Position: Oppose

Author: Santiago

Date: 09/30/2022

Status: Passed

Mental health services: Would require the Department of State Hospitals to create a model discharge plan for counties and hospitals to follow when discharging those held under temporary holds or a conservatorship. The bill would require county mental health departments to collaborate with facilities and hospitals to develop, implement, and adhere to an adequate discharge plan that ensures continuity of services and care in the community for all individuals exiting holds or a conservatorship, and to implement that plan across the entire network of acute and subacute facilities by 2/1/2024. Would require the county discharge plan to require that an individual exiting a temporary hold or a conservatorship be provided with a detailed treatment plan that includes a scheduled first appointment with their referred service provider and that establishes a team of 2 or more service providers designated to assist the individual for up to 6 months. Would prohibit a county from discharging an individual from a hold unless the first follow-up appointment is scheduled and the appointment information is given to the individual. Would allow counties pay for the services authorized in Sections 5150 and 5250 to use funds from the Mental Health Services Fund when included in county plans. Would require the state Department of Health Care Services to issue guidance specifying which services authorized under the LPS Act may be paid by counties with funds from the Mental Health Services Fund. Would require the MHSOAC to develop, implement, and oversee a public and comprehensive framework for tracking and reporting spending on mental health programs and services from all major funding sources.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Wood

Date: 09/30/2022

Status: Passed

Mental Health: Involuntary commitment: This bill would specify that the 72-hour period of evaluation and treatment under the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act begins when the person is first detained. Existing law states that a certification hearing must take place within four days of the date on which a person is certified for a period of intensive treatment. This bill would instead require a certification hearing within 7 days of the date on which the person was initially detained pursuant to Section 5150.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Choi

Date: 06/20/2022

Status: Passed

Advanced health care directives: mental health treatment: Would amend current healthcare directives statutes to clarify that health care decisions under those provisions include mental health treatment. Would not create a separate psychiatric advance directive or a new statutory form for that purpose.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Muratsuchi

Date: 11/30/2023

Status: Died

Mental health services: involuntary treatment. This bill would, for each person admitted for a 72 hour, or 14 day hold under the LPS Act, require the facility providing the 72-hour evaluation or 14 day treatment to keep with the person’s medical record contact information for an individual designated by the individual as their medical emergency contact, and would require that facility to develop a continuity of care plan for the person before their release from the detention or the intensive treatment. The facility would be required, before the release of the individual, to provide the county behavioral health director with the medical emergency contact information, the continuity of care plan, and the possible release date of the person. The bill would require the county to offer a person released from a 72-hour or 14 day hold who is homeless a local crisis bed or recuperative care upon their release from the designated facility. Acceptance of this bed is voluntary.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Lowenthal

Date: 04/18/2024

Existing law generally provides for the placement of foster youth in various placement settings and governs the provision of child welfare services, as specified. Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensure and regulation of community care facilities, including community treatment facilities (CTFs) by the State Department of Social Services.Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to adopt certain regulations for CTFs, including, among others, that only seriously emotionally disturbed children, as defined, either (1) for whom other less restrictive mental health interventions have been tried, as specified, or (2) who are currently placed in an acute psychiatric hospital or state hospital or in a facility outside the state for mental health treatment, and who may require periods of containment to participate in, and benefit from, mental health treatment, shall be placed in a CTF. This bill would make technical, non-substantive changes to these provisions.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Ramos

Date: 09/27/2022

Status: Passed

Children’s psychiatric residential treatment facilities: This bill would require DHCS to license and establish regulations for psychiatric residential treatment facilities that provide psychiatric services to individuals under age 21 in an inpatient, non-hospital setting.

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Related Documents

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Irwin

Date: 09/27/2022

Status: Passed

Existing law establishes the requirements for executing a written advance health care directive that is legally sufficient to direct health care decisions. Existing law provides a form that an individual may use or modify to create an advance health care directive. The statutory form includes a space to designate an agent to make health care decisions, as well as optional spaces to designate a first alternate agent and 2nd alternate agent. Existing law defines “health care decision,” as specified. Existing law authorizes an individual to provide an “individual health care instruction” as the individual’s authorized written or oral direction regarding a health care decision for the individual. Existing law confirms that the provisions relating to execution of advance health directives do not prohibit the execution of a voluntary standalone psychiatric advance directive. Existing law defines “advance psychiatric directive” as a legal document, executed on a voluntary basis by a person who has the capacity to make medical decisions and in accordance with the requirements for an advance health care directive in this division, that allows a person with mental illness to protect their autonomy and ability to direct their own care by documenting their preferences for treatment in advance of a mental health crisis.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Rendon

Date: 04/18/2024

This bill would require the department to establish a Family Wellness Pilot Program under which regional centers shall provide counseling and peer support group services to the families of regional center consumers, as specified. The bill would require the department to evaluate the program and submit a report on the evaluation to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2029.

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MHAC Position: Watch

Author: Cunningham

Date: 11/30/2022

Status: Died

Child users: addiction: This bill, the Social Media Platform Duty to Children Act, would impose on an operator of a social media platform a duty not to addict, as defined, child users and would, among other things, prohibit a social media platform from addicting a child user by any of certain means, including the use or sale of a child user’s personal data. The act would authorize a person authorized to assert the legal rights of a child user who suffers injury as a result of a violation of the act to bring an action against a violator to recover or obtain certain relief, including a civil penalty of up to $25,000 per violation per calendar year.

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Related Documents

• Bill Fact Sheet