Amendment ID: S2519-48-R1

Redraft Amendment 48

Children in need of urgent behavioral health care

Ms. Lovely, Messrs. Tarr, Brady, Montigny, Lesser and O'Connor move that the proposed new draft be amended by inserting after section 57 the following section:-

“SECTION 57A. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the executive office of health and human services, in consultation with the department of mental health, the department of public health, MassHealth, the office of the child advocate and the division of insurance, shall establish an expedited protocol that establishes clear steps and responsibilities to ensure that individuals under the age of 22 in need of inpatient or residential psychiatric treatment are placed in an appropriate facility from an emergency department or satellite emergency facility within 48 hours of admission to the emergency department or satellite emergency facility that shall be incorporated in the regulations required under section 51¾  of chapter 111 of the General Laws.

The protocol shall include, but not be limited to: (i) a behavioral health evaluation to occur, in person or through the use of telehealth technology, within 12 hours of admission to the emergency department or satellite emergency facility; (ii) notification to the department of mental health and the patient’s insurance carrier to expedite placement in or admission to an appropriate treatment program or facility upon completion of the behavioral health evaluation; (iii) where appropriate, monitoring, emergent psychiatric intervention and initiation of treatment to stabilize the individual until placement in or admission to an appropriate treatment program or facility; (iv) notification upon discharge from the emergency department or satellite emergency facility to the patient’s primary care physician, if known; and (v) recording by the emergency department or satellite emergency facility of the behavioral health evaluation in the patient’s electronic medical record upon discharge and making the evaluation directly accessible by other healthcare providers and facilities consistent with federal and state privacy requirements through a secure electronic medical record, health information exchange or other similar software or information systems.”.