BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 741 (Williams) - Mental health: community care facilities
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|Version: June 16, 2016 |Policy Vote: HUMAN S. 4 - 0, |
| | HEALTH 8 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: August 11, 2016 |Consultant: Brendan McCarthy |
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*********** 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
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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
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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.
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