85R9041 GCB/LHC-D

By: Price H.B. No. 3000

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the eligibility for medical assistance of certain persons with mental illness confined in certain facilities, certain duties of the Office of Court Administration of the Texas Judicial System related to persons with mental illness, and the creation of a grant program to reduce recidivism of persons with mental illness.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 32, Human Resources Code, is amended by adding Section 32.0266 to read as follows:

Sec. 32.0266. SUSPENSION AND AUTOMATIC REINSTATEMENT OF ELIGIBILITY FOR CERTAIN INMATES. (a) In this section, "department" means the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

(b) The eligibility for medical assistance of an inmate in the custody of the department is suspended during the period of custody if the inmate is determined by a physician to be a person with mental illness.

(c) An inmate whose eligibility for medical assistance is suspended under this section is automatically reinstated on the date the individual is released from the custody of the department. Following the reinstatement, the individual whose eligibility was suspended while an inmate in the custody of the department remains eligible until the expiration of the period of months for which the individual was certified as eligible, excluding the period during which the individual's eligibility was suspended.

(d) The executive commissioner and the department by rule shall adopt a memorandum of understanding that establishes the respective responsibilities of the commission and the department to ensure the suspension and automatic reinstatement of the eligibility of an individual for medical assistance under this section. The memorandum of understanding must establish methods for:

(1) identifying inmates in the custody of the department who have mental illness and who are eligible for medical assistance; and

(2) coordinating the period of an inmate's incarceration with the period of the inmate's suspension of eligibility for medical assistance under this section to ensure suspension under this section begins on the date the department's custody of the individual begins, and reinstatement under this section occurs on the date the individual is released from the department's custody.

SECTION 2. Subchapter C, Chapter 72, Government Code, is amended by adding Section 72.032 to read as follows:

Sec. 72.032. BEST PRACTICES EDUCATION. The director shall make available to courts information concerning best practices for addressing the needs of persons with mental illness in the court system, including the use of the preferred terms and phrases provided by Section 392.002.

SECTION 3. Chapter 121, Government Code, is amended by adding Section 121.003 to read as follows:

Sec. 121.003. SPECIALTY COURTS REPORT. (a) In this section, "office" means the Office of Court Administration of the Texas Judicial System.

(b) For the period beginning September 1, 2017, and ending September 1, 2018, the office shall collect information from specialty courts in this state regarding outcomes of participants in those specialty courts who are persons with mental illness, including recidivism rates of those participants, and other relevant information as determined by the office.

(c) Not later than December 1, 2018, the office shall submit to the legislature a report containing and evaluating the information collected under Subsection (a).

(d) This section expires September 1, 2019.

SECTION 4. Subchapter B, Chapter 531, Government Code, is amended by adding Section 531.0993 to read as follows:

Sec. 531.0993. GRANT PROGRAM TO REDUCE RECIDIVISM, ARREST, AND INCARCERATION AMONG INDIVIDUALS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS AND TO REDUCE WAIT TIME FOR FORENSIC COMMITMENT. (a) For purposes of this section, "low-income household" means a household with a total income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty guideline.

(b) The commission shall establish a program to award grants to county-based community collaboratives for the purposes of reducing:

(1) recidivism by, the frequency of arrests of, and incarceration of persons with mental illness; and

(2) the total waiting time for forensic commitment of persons with mental illness to a state hospital.

(c) A community collaborative may petition the commission for a grant under the program only if the collaborative includes a county, a local mental health authority that operates in the county, and each hospital district, if any, located in the county. A community collaborative may include other local entities designated by the collaborative's members.

(d) The commission shall condition each grant awarded to a community collaborative under this section on the collaborative providing matching funds from non-state sources in a total amount at least equal to the awarded grant amount. To raise matching funds, a collaborative may seek and receive gifts, grants, or donations from any person.

(e) For each state fiscal year for which a community collaborative seeks a grant, the collaborative must submit a petition to the commission not later than the first day of that fiscal year. The community collaborative must include with a petition:

(1) a statement indicating the amount of matching funds the collaborative is able to provide; and

(2) a plan that:

(A) is endorsed by each of the collaborative's member entities;

(B) identifies a target population;

(C) describes how the grant money and matching funds will be used;

(D) includes outcome measures to evaluate the success of the plan; and

(E) describes how the success of the plan in accordance with the outcome measures would further the state's interest in the grant program's purposes.

(f) The commission must review and approve plans submitted with a petition under Subsection (e) before the commission awards a grant under this section. If the commission determines that a plan includes insufficient outcome measures, the commission may make the necessary changes to the plan to establish appropriate outcome measures. The commission may not make other changes to a plan.

(g) For each petition timely submitted and containing the statement and plan required by Subsection (e), the commission shall estimate the number of cases of serious mental illness in low-income households located in the county included in the community collaborative that submitted the petition.

(h) For each state fiscal year, the commission shall determine an amount of grant money available for the program on a per-case basis by dividing the total amount of money appropriated to the commission for the purpose of awarding grants under this section for that fiscal year by the total number of the cases estimated under Subsection (g) for all collaboratives to which the commission intends to award grants under this section.

(i) The commission shall make available to a community collaborative awarded a grant under this section a grant in an amount equal to the lesser of:

(1) the amount determined by multiplying the per-case amount determined under Subsection (h) by the number of cases of serious mental illness in low-income households estimated for that collaborative under Subsection (g); or

(2) the collaborative's available matching funds.

(j) Acceptable uses for the grant money and matching funds include:

(1) the continuation of a mental health jail diversion program;

(2) the establishment or expansion of a mental health jail diversion program;

(3) the establishment of alternatives to competency restoration in a state hospital, including outpatient competency restoration, inpatient competency restoration in a setting other than a state hospital, or jail-based competency restoration;

(4) the provision of assertive community treatment or forensic assertive community treatment with an outreach component;

(5) the provision of intensive mental health services and substance abuse treatment not readily available in the county;

(6) the provision of continuity of care services for an individual being released from a state hospital;

(7) the establishment of interdisciplinary rapid response teams to reduce law enforcement's involvement with mental health emergencies; and

(8) the provision of local community hospital, crisis, respite, or residential beds.

(k) Not later than the 90th day after the last day of the state fiscal year for which the commission distributes a grant under this section, each community collaborative that receives a grant shall prepare and submit a report describing the effect of the grant money and matching funds in achieving the standard defined by the outcome measures in the plan submitted under Subsection (e).

(l) The commission may make inspections of the operation and provision of mental health services provided by a community collaborative to ensure state money appropriated for the grant program is used effectively.

SECTION 5. The changes in law made by this Act apply to an individual who is released from a facility or other setting described by Section 32.0266, Human Resources Code, as added by this Act, on or after the effective date of this Act, regardless of the date the individual was:

(1) confined in a facility or other setting described by Section 32.0266, Human Resources Code, as added by this Act; or

(2) determined eligible for medical assistance under Chapter 32, Human Resources Code.

SECTION 6. If before implementing any provision of Section 32.0266, Human Resources Code, as added by this Act, a state agency determines that a waiver or authorization from a federal agency is necessary for implementation of that provision, the agency affected by the provision shall request the waiver or authorization and may delay implementing that provision until the waiver or authorization is granted.

SECTION 7. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.