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.