BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Session AB 741 (Williams) - Mental health: community care facilities ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Version: June 16, 2016 |Policy Vote: HUMAN S. 4 - 0, | | | HEALTH 8 - 0 | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Hearing Date: August 11, 2016 |Consultant: Brendan McCarthy | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- *********** ANALYSIS ADDENDUM - SUSPENSE FILE *********** The following information is revised to reflect amendments adopted by the committee on August 11, 2016 Bill Summary: AB 741 would allow a short-term residential treatment center to be operated as a children's crisis residential center, with specified regulatory requirements. Fiscal Impact: One-time costs of about $550,000 for the development of regulations by the Department of Social Services (General Fund). The bill requires the Department to adopt regulations to specify the requirements for operating a short-term residential treatment center as a children's crisis AB 741 (Williams) Page 1 of ? residential center. Unknown information technology costs, likely in the low hundreds of thousands, for the Department of Social Services to modify its internal systems for licensing and regulating children's crisis residential treatment centers (General Fund). Ongoing costs of about $125,000 per year for the Department of Social Services to license and regulate children's crisis residential center (General Fund). Although the Department does collect licensing fees from regulated entities, those fees are not set at a level that is sufficient to fund the Department's licensing and enforcement program. No significant administrative costs are anticipated by the Department of Health Care Services. The bill requires the Department to establish Medi-Cal rates to pay for the costs of providing children's crisis residential services. However, the Department indicates that the Medi-Cal State Plan already includes children's crisis residential services and includes a methodology to pay for those services. The Department indicates that the reimbursement rate will be the same as that provided for adult crisis residential services. Unknown increase in Medi-Cal costs due to increased utilization of children's crisis residential services (General Fund, local funds, and federal funds). The intention of the bill is to provide services to children in children's crisis residential centers, rather than in psychiatric hospitals or general acute care hospitals. In those cases, there would likely be cost savings to Medi-Cal, since the reimbursement rates for crisis residential services will be lower than inpatient hospital rates. However, there is a consensus that there is a significant shortage in available psychiatric beds for children in the state. There is likely to be a significant unmet need for psychiatric inpatient services. Therefore, some of the utilization of children's crisis residential care will be in addition to those services currently being provided in hospitals, rather than a substitution for services already being provided. The size of this impact is unknown. Author AB 741 (Williams) Page 2 of ? Amendments: Make children's crisis residential centers eligible for grant funding authorized in the 2016 Budget Act. Committee Amendments: Clarify the limits on placements in a children's crisis residential center, require centers to report data to the state, and delete the Department's authority to waive existing statutory requirements. -- END --