A proposed package of bipartisan mental health legislation is advancing to the Senate floor, including calls for same-day mental health and medical treatment, and an expansion in the number of patients addiction specialists can treat in a given year.
In an executive session, members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee unanimously approved five bills and several amendments geared toward improving mental health.
Among the items proposed in the Mental Health Reform Act (S. 1945) are increased funding for screening and treatment of first-episode psychosis, clarification of HIPAA laws, integration of mental health and medical records, and federal guidance on enforcing existing mental health parity laws.
The bill also calls for an end to current restrictions on using same-day mental health and medical services at Medicaid-funded facilities.
Initially, the bill called for an end to the prohibition of using federal Medicaid funds to pay for adult inpatient psychiatric care beyond 30 days, but this was removed. One of the bill’s cosponsors, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), said during the meeting that he expected this provision to be added back in after it reached the Senate floor.
The Recovery Enhancement for Addiction Treatment, or TREAT Act (S. 1455), calls for expanding from 30 to 100 the allowable number of substance use detoxification patients that a qualified practitioner is legally allowed to treat annually. The legislation includes a provision allowing providers to request permission to treat unlimited numbers of detox patients after the first year.
Meanwhile, a bill (S. 2256) that calls for physicians to coprescribe the opioid antidote naloxone with pain medication was added as an amendment to S. 1945.
Also included in the package were measures aimed at ensuring quality care for children born addicted to opiates, clarification of unused prescription painkiller laws, and a move that seeks to require insurers to make transparent all reasons for denying mental health coverage in any given situation.
Earlier this month, in a vote just 1 shy of unanimous, the Senate approved the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which calls for the creation of a federal pain management best practices interagency task force. So far, however, no funding has been attached to the legislation.
HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) told fellow committee members that because the proposed legislation was bipartisan and likely to win the president’s signature, he had the assurance of Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that the bills would receive Senate floor priority.
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