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Senate Bill 421 |
Senate Author: Zaffirini et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-13 |
House Sponsor: Naishtat |
The 76th Legislature required the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to form a consortium to expand the Texas Integrated Funding Initiative pilot project and to develop local mental health care systems in communities for minors who receive residential mental health services or who are at risk of residential placement to receive those services. Senate Bill 421 amends the Government Code to make the consortium a permanent, statewide program known as the Texas System of Care Consortium charged with responsibility for and oversight of a state system of care to develop local mental health systems of care in communities for certain minors who are receiving residential mental health services or inpatient mental health hospitalization or who are at risk of being removed from their home and placed in a more restrictive environment to receive those services, a residential treatment facility, or a facility or program operated by the Department of Family and Protective Services or an agency that is part of the juvenile justice system. The bill revises the composition of the consortium and modifies the duties of HHSC and the consortium to include developing an evaluation system to measure outcomes of state and local system of care efforts.
Senate Bill 421 requires the consortium to submit a biennial report to the legislature and the Council on Children and Families that contains an evaluation of the outcomes of the Texas System of Care and recommendations on strengthening state policies and practices that support local systems of care. The bill specifies that HHSC and the Department of State Health Services, in jointly monitoring the progress of communities that implement a local system of care, must monitor cost avoidance and the net savings that result from implementing a local system of care.