Prior Priority Legislation

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.

Read the Bill Check the Status

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.

Read the Bill

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.

Read the Bill Check the Status

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.

Read the Bill

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.

Read the Bill Check the Status

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.

Read the Bill

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.

Read the Bill Check the Status

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.

Read the Bill Check the Status

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.

Read the Bill

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.

Read the Bill

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.

Read the Bill Check the Status

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.

Read the Bill Check the Status

MHAC Position: Support

Author: Carrillo

Date: 04/18/2024

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law authorizes the Director of Health Care Services to terminate a contract or impose sanctions if the director finds that a Medi-Cal managed care plan fails to comply with contract requirements, state or federal law or regulations, or the state plan or approved waivers, or for other good cause.Existing law establishes, until January 1, 2026, certain time and distance and appointment time standards for specified Medi-Cal managed care covered services, consistent with federal regulations relating to network adequacy standards, to ensure that those services are available and accessible to enrollees of Medi-Cal managed care plans in a timely manner, as specified.Under this bill, a Medi-Cal managed care plan would be deemed to be not in compliance with the appointment time standards if either (1) fewer than 85% of the network providers had an appointment available within the standards or (2) the department receives information establishing that the plan was unable to deliver timely, available, or accessible health care services to enrollees, as specified. Under the bill, failure to comply with the appointment time standard may result in contract termination or the issuance of sanctions as described above.Existing law requires a Medi-Cal managed care plan to submit a request for alternative access standards if the plan cannot meet the time or distance standards. Under existing law, a plan is not required to submit a previously approved request on an annual basis, unless the plan requires modifications to its request. Existing law requires the plan to submit this previously approved request at least every 3 years for review and approval when the plan is required to demonstrate compliance with time or distance standards.This bill would instead require a plan that has a previously approved alternative access standard to submit a renewal request on an annual basis, explaining which efforts the plan has made in the previous 12 months to mitigate or eliminate circumstances that justify the use of an alternative access standard, as specified. The bill would require the department to consider the reasonableness and effectiveness of the mitigating efforts as part of the renewal decision.Existing law requires a Medi-Cal managed care plan to demonstrate, annually and upon request by the department, how the plan arranged for the delivery of Medi-Cal covered services to Medi-Cal enrollees, with a report measuring compliance, as specified. Existing law requires the department to annually evaluate a plan’s compliance with the standards and to annually publish a report.This bill would, effective for contract periods commencing on or after July 1, 2025, require the plan’s and department’s reports to include certain information and require the department’s evaluation to be performed using a direct testing method, as specified. Under the bill, failure to comply with these provisions may result in contract termination or the issuance of sanctions.Existing law, as part of the federally required external quality review organization (EQRO) review of Medi-Cal managed care plans, requires the EQRO designated by the department to compile certain data, by plan and by county, for the purpose of informing the status of implementation of the above-described standards.This bill would require that the data include, effective for contract periods commencing on or after July 1, 2025, the number of requests for alternative access standards, categorized by new and returning patients, and the number of allowable exceptions for the appointment time standards, categorized by urgent and nonurgent appointment types and by new and returning patients.Under existing law, in lieu of contract termination, the director has the power and authority to require or impose a plan of correction and issue one or more of specified sanctions against a contractor for findings of noncompliance or good cause.This bill would require the department to monitor any plan of correction imposed by the director, with progress reported publicly no less than annually for the duration of the plan of correction.Existing law authorizes the director to impose monetary sanctions based on any of specified circumstances, including, among others, a contractor’s failure to comply with network adequacy standards, failure to submit timely and accurate network provider data, or failure to timely and accurately process grievances or appeals.This bill would set forth definitions for the terms of “timely” and “accurate network provider data.”

Read the Bill Check the Status

MHAC Position: Support

Author: Salas

Date: 08/25/2022

Status: Vetoed

Behavioral Health Internship Grant Program: This bill would, subject to an appropriation, require the Department of Health Care Access and Information to develop and administer a grant program to allocate funding in the form of stipends, for students in behavioral health fields of study and practice, who are participating in unpaid internships or completing unpaid licensure hours at FQHCs. The bill would require the department, when making grants, to consider mental health professional shortage areas and underrepresented groups in the behavioral health workforce.

Read the Bill

MHAC Position: Support

Author: Holden

Date: 04/18/2024

This bill would require the department to prepare a document, and to post it on the department’s internet website, for the purpose of making available resource information for individuals who are released or discharged by a facility after being detained for evaluation and treatment. Under the bill, the information would relate to potential methods for covering any applicable costs resulting from evaluation and treatment services in a manner that eliminates or reduces any share of cost for the individual. The bill would require the document to contain certain information, including information on how the individual, if uninsured or underinsured, might be able to have the services be covered by any applicable public or private programs. The bill would require the document to include a blank section that each county would be required to use for adding county-specific resource information, as specified. The bill would require a county to post the completed document on the county’s internet website. The bill would require the above-described facilities to provide a copy of that document to a detained individual upon their release or discharge by the facility. By creating new duties for counties relating to the document, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Read the Bill Check the Status