Amendment ID: S2133-10

Amendment 10

Behavioral Health Care Report

Mr. Michael O. Moore moves to amend the bill by inserting, after section ____, the following new section:-

“SECTION _____. Chapter 12C of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 16 the following new section:

Section 16C. Notwithstanding any special or general law to the contrary, the center for health and information and analysis, in consultation with the division of insurance, shall conduct an analysis on access, utilization and cost drivers for behavioral health services in the commonwealth, measuring access to care across the behavioral health continuum of care, trends in utilization of services across the continuum of care, and payment rates by public and private payers. The center shall analyze and compare the Massachusetts results with both national and regional behavioral health data.

As part of its report, the center shall report on price variation between behavioral health care providers, by payer and provider type and whether such variation impacts access to mental health and substance abuse services.

The center shall work with MassHealth to collect mental health and substance abuse claims data in a manner that is consistent with the data collected by the center from health plans pursuant to section 10 of this chapter.

The center shall publish and provide a copy of the report to health policy commission, the house and senate committees on ways and means and the joint committee on mental health and substance abuse and the joint committee on health care financing no later than October 1, 2014. The center may contract with an outside organization with expertise in issues related to this subject matter to produce this report.”