Amendment #226 to H4100

Taunton State Hospital Study Amendment

Representatives O'Connell of Taunton, Orrall of Lakeville, Aguiar of Fall River, Barrows of Mansfield, Creedon of Brockton, D'Emilia of Bridgewater, Durant of Spencer, Ferguson of Holden, Garlick of Needham, Gifford of Wareham, Howitt of Seekonk, Koczera of New Bedford, O'Day of West Boylston, Ross of Attleboro, Schmid of Westport, Sullivan of Fall River, Webster of Pembroke and Poirier of North Attleborough move to amend the bill in section 2, in item 5095-0015, by adding the following "For the operation of hospital facilities and community-based mental health services; provided further however, the department shall take no action to reduce the client population of any state inpatient facility including Taunton state hospital for the sole purpose of closing the hospital, and no steps shall be taken to close any such institution through attrition, layoffs, reductions or any other means until  an independent comprehensive study of the available public and private behavioral health care services of the commonwealth is completed and the general court after review of the report shall have approved by law any such reductions or closure of Taunton State Hospital or any other state inpatient facility; provided further there is hereby established an advisory committee for the purpose of arranging for and evaluating the independent analysis of the public and private behavioral health care services available to the residents of the commonwealth.   

The advisory committee shall consist of the chairs of the house and senate committees on ways and means, the joint committee on health care financing, the joint committee on mental health and substance abuse, or their designees, one member of the minority party to be appointed by the minority leader of the house of representatives, one member of the minority party to be appointed by the minority leader of the senate; and the secretary of health and human services, the commissioner of mental health, the commissioner of public health, the commissioner of insurance, and the director of Medicaid, or their designees; and one representative from each of the following organizations: the Association for Behavioral Healthcare; the Massachusetts Association of Behavioral Health Systems; the Massachusetts College of Emergency Physicians; the Massachusetts Hospital Association; the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers; the Massachusetts Medical Society; the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society;  the Massachusetts Nurses Association; the Service Employees International Union; the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees; Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts; the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans; Health Law Advocates; the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Massachusetts; and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The advisory committee shall be co-chaired by one advisory committee senate member designated by the senate president and one advisory committee house member designated by the speaker of the house of representatives.

The advisory committee shall upon the appointment of the co-chairs, (1) convene upon the call of the co-chairs to commission an independent consultant qualified by education and experience in the mental health/behavioral health field  to evaluate and analyze the public and private  behavioral health care services available to the residents of the commonwealth. The advisory committee shall advise, direct and consult with the independent consultant on the execution and completion of the analysis. Using FY 2004 as the base year, the analysis shall include, but not be limited to, an account of the following: (a) the availability of inpatient and outpatient behavioral health care services, including community treatment options and the increase in community based residential support services since FY 2004; (b) the inpatient capacity of acute and continuing care beds at public and private psychiatric facilities, including overall bed availability and bed availability for co-morbid and difficult to place patients, average length of stay,  geographic location of said beds, and the number of private acute care hospital psychiatric beds that have been eliminated or lost since FY 2004 and projected future needs for both public and private inpatient psychiatric beds; (c) the connection between public and private behavioral health care services; (d) the payment and reimbursement of behavioral health care services; (e) the implementation of state and federal mental health parity laws; (f) the prior authorization requirements related to the coverage of inpatient level  behavioral health care services; (g) the boarding of  behavioral health patients in hospital emergency departments, if and where these patients were referred for a continuum  of care, the average length of stay in a general care hospital setting  before  an inpatient bed became available;  the hospital readmission rates, and where  patients were discharged to if not to a continuum of care facility  (h) the use of direct admissions to inpatient behavioral health care services from a community based setting;  (i) a review of the Massachusetts Emergency Services Program; (j) a review of forensic services and beds provided by the department to each region of the Commonwealth; and (2) convene upon the call of the co-chairs to: (a) advise and consult with the independent consultant on the completion and implementation of the analysis; (b) review and make recommendations on any and all preliminary findings of the independent consultant's analysis; (c) review and make recommendations to the independent consultant for a report to be submitted to the general court.

The independent consultant shall report to the general court the preliminary results of its analysis by filing the same with the clerk of the house of representatives and the clerk of the senate on or before April 30, 2013. The independent consultant shall report to the general court the final results of its analysis and findings by filing the same with the clerk of the house of representatives and the clerk of the senate on or before November 15, 2013. The advisory committee shall file its recommendations based on the final report of the independent consultant with the clerk of the house of representatives and the clerk of the senate on or before December 31, 2013."