Budget Amendment ID: FY2022-S3-464

EHS 464

Addressing Continuing Care Transparency and Capacity

Messrs. Tarr and O'Connor moved that the proposed new text be amended in section 2, by inserting after section _ the following section:- the following section:-

"SECTION _ Chapter 19 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2018 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following section:-

Section 26.

(a) The department shall publicly report data on the availability of adult and pediatric beds at inpatient continuing care facilities that are operated by or contracted by the department.  On a monthly basis, the department shall report: i) number of operational beds, per continuing care facility, and ii) the number of beds that have been taken out of operation, per continuing care facility.  On a weekly basis, the department shall report: i) inpatient census, per continuing care facility; ii) number of patients that have been admitted off of the waitlist for continuing care placement, disaggregated by the continuing care facility that accepted the patient and by the inpatient facility the patient was accepted from; iii) the number of forensic patients admitted per continuing care facility; iv) the number of patients discharged per continuing care facility; v) the number of patients who cannot be discharged from the continuing care facility to the community due to the acuity of their behavioral health diagnosis or forensic status, per continuing care facility; and vi) the number of patients appropriate for discharge from continuing care but who are awaiting an available community placement, per continuing care facility.  In its first monthly report detailing the operational status of beds at each continuing care facility operated or contracted by the department, the department shall provide historic data on the previous 15 years of operational continuing care beds, per continuing care facility.  To the extent feasible, data in the weekly reports shall be disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender identity, age and other demographic information deemed relevant."