BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 38 (Eggman) - Mental health: Early Diagnosis and Preventive
Treatment Program
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|Version: June 13, 2016 |Policy Vote: HEALTH 9 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Brendan McCarthy |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 38 would require the Department of Health Care
Services to provide funding to a program at UC Davis that
provides comprehensive mental health services, in order to pay
for the costs to provide services and supports not covered by
private health care coverage.
Fiscal
Impact:
Ongoing administrative costs likely in the range of $75,000 to
$150,000 per year over the life of the program for the
Department of Health Care Services to manage the program and
ensure that state funding is used for the allowed uses
(General Fund).
Ongoing program costs of about $400,000 per year to provide
state funding for services and supports not covered by private
health care coverage (General Fund). Currently, the UC Davis
program admits 50-60 new patients each year, patients
generally participate for two years, annual costs are about
AB 38 (Eggman) Page 1 of
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$15,000, and roughly 40% of per-capita program costs are not
covered by private insurance.
One-time costs likely between $100,000 and $200,000 for an
evaluation of the UC Davis program (General Fund).
Background: Under current law and regulation, both the Medi-Cal program
and private health care coverage are required to provide
coverage for mental health services at parity with coverage for
physical health care needs.
Under the Mental Health Services Act (Proposition 63) about $1.8
billion per year is available to pay for mental health programs,
including to provide for services and supports not provided by
Medi-Cal or private health care coverage.
The UC Davis Department of Psychiatry currently operates the
Early Diagnosis and Preventative Treatment Program. The purpose
of this program is to provide early interventions for
individuals with a mental illness that has the potential to
become debilitating without significant intervention. The
Program provides clinical mental health services as well as
non-medical services and supports such as family education, job
training, and other services. The Program has a contract with
Sacramento County which provides Mental Health Services Act
funding to cover the cost of providing the non-covered services
to Medi-Cal beneficiaries. To date, private health care plans
have not provided any funding for the additional services and
supports provided by the Program to their enrollees.
Proposed Law:
AB 38 would require the Department of Health Care Services to
provide funding to a program at UC Davis that provides
comprehensive mental health services, in order to pay for the
costs to provide services and supports not covered by private
health care coverage.
Specific provisions of the bill would:
AB 38 (Eggman) Page 2 of
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Establish a program at the Department of Health Care Services
to support integrated, outpatient mental health programs;
Require the Department to use funds appropriated by the
Legislature to provide reimbursement to an existing program
operated by the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry, to cover
the costs of providing services not reimbursed by private
health care coverage;
Authorize the Department to accept non-state funds for the
program;
Require the University of California, Davis to the report to
the Legislature on the outcomes of the program, if the
University receives state funding;
Sunset the provisions of the bill on January 1, 2022.
Related
Legislation: AB 1576 (Eggman) is similar to this bill. That
bill was not heard in the Assembly Health Committee.
Staff
Comments: Staff is not aware of other state programs designed
to use state funding to augment private health care benefits.
The sponsors of the bill indicate that the purpose of the bill
is to allow the Program to demonstrate that its interventions
will have positive clinical outcomes and reduce future health
care costs (such as psychiatric hospitalizations). Since the
Program currently provides enhanced services and supports to
Medi-Cal beneficiaries (using Mental Health Services Act
funding), it is not clear why an evaluation of the costs and
benefits of services provided to that population could not be
used to evaluate the benefits of the program.
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