I
118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 8543
To amend the Social Security Act and the Public Health Service Act to
permanently authorize certified community behavioral health clinics, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY23, 2024
Ms. M
ATSUI(for herself, Mr. BUCSHON, Ms. CRAIG, Mr. MOLINARO, and Mr.
T
ONKO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on
Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend the Social Security Act and the Public Health
Service Act to permanently authorize certified community
behavioral health clinics, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘Ensuring Excellence in Mental Health Act’’. 5
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 6
this Act is as follows: 7
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Sec. 1. Short title.
TITLE I—ENSURING PERMANENCY FOR CERTIFIED COMMUNITY
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CLINICS IN THE MEDICAID PROGRAM
Sec. 101. Establishing a Medicaid Prospective Payment System for Certified
Community Behavioral Health Clinics.
TITLE II—COVERAGE OF CERTIFIED COMMUNITY BEHAVIORAL
HEALTH CLINIC SERVICES UNDER THE MEDICARE PROGRAM
Sec. 201. Coverage of certified community behavioral health clinic services
under the Medicare program.
TITLE III—COMMUNITY BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CLINIC GRANTS
Sec. 301. Operating grants for community behavioral health clinics.
TITLE I—ENSURING PERMA-1
NENCY FOR CERTIFIED COM-2
MUNITY BEHAVIORAL 3
HEALTH CLINICS IN THE 4
MEDICAID PROGRAM 5
SEC. 101. ESTABLISHING A MEDICAID PROSPECTIVE PAY-6
MENT SYSTEM FOR CERTIFIED COMMUNITY 7
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CLINICS. 8
Section 1902 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 9
1396a) is amended by adding at the end the following new 10
subsection: 11
‘‘(uu) P
AYMENT FORSERVICESPROVIDED BYCER-12
TIFIEDCOMMUNITYBEHAVIORALHEALTHCLINICS.— 13
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Beginning with fiscal year 14
2024, with respect to services furnished on or after 15
January 1, 2024, and each succeeding fiscal year, a 16
State may provide under the State plan under this 17
title (or under a waiver of such plan) for payment 18
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for services described in section 1905(a)(31) fur-1
nished by a certified community behavioral health 2
clinic (in this subsection referred to as a ‘clinic’) in 3
accordance with the provisions of this subsection. 4
‘‘(2) P
AYMENT FOR SERVICES IN INITIAL YEAR 5
AND EVERY THIRD YEAR .—Subject to paragraphs 6
(4), (5), and (6), for services furnished by a clinic 7
in the first fiscal year for which a State elects to 8
provide for payment for services described in section 9
1905(a)(31) in accordance with the payment option 10
under paragraph (1), and every third fiscal year 11
thereafter in which the State makes such an elec-12
tion, the State shall provide for payment for such 13
services in an amount (calculated on the basis of 14
daily visits or unduplicated monthly visits, at the 15
State’s election) that is equal to 100 percent of the 16
average costs of the clinic of furnishing any of the 17
services described in paragraph (31) of section 18
1905(a) during the 2 fiscal years preceding the fis-19
cal year involved which are reasonable and related to 20
the costs of furnishing such services; provided that, 21
in the absence of complete actual cost data rep-22
resenting the provision of the full covered benefit in 23
such preceding fiscal years, certified community be-24
havioral health clinics may, at the State’s discretion, 25
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use estimated or projected data relating to specific 1
services for which they lack cost experience. The 2
per-unit rate derived from such cost data shall be 3
adjusted to take into account any increase or de-4
crease in the scope of such services furnished by the 5
clinic in the fiscal year involved. 6
‘‘(3) P
AYMENT FOR SERVICES IN SUCCEEDING 7
FISCAL YEARS.—Subject to paragraphs (4), (5), and 8
(6), for services described in section 1905(a)(31) 9
furnished by a clinic for which a State elects to pro-10
vide for payment for such services in accordance 11
with the payment option under paragraph (1) and 12
that are furnished in a fiscal year that is not de-13
scribed in paragraph (2), the State plan shall pro-14
vide for payment for such services in an amount 15
(calculated on the basis of daily visits or 16
unduplicated monthly visits, at the State’s election) 17
that is equal to the amount calculated under this 18
subsection for such services and clinic for the pre-19
ceding year— 20
‘‘(A) increased by the percentage increase 21
in the inflationary factor described in section 22
1834(aa)(2)(C); and 23
‘‘(B) adjusted to take into account any in-24
crease or decrease in the scope of such services 25
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furnished by the clinic during the fiscal year in-1
volved. 2
‘‘(4) E
STABLISHMENT OF INITIAL YEAR PAY -3
MENT FOR NEW CLINICS .—In any case in which an 4
entity first qualifies as a certified community behav-5
ioral health clinic after the first fiscal year in which 6
a State elects to provide for payment for services de-7
scribed in section 1905(a)(31) in accordance with 8
the payment option under paragraph (1), the State 9
plan shall provide for payment for such services in 10
the first 2 years in which the clinic so qualifies in 11
an amount (calculated on the basis of daily visits or 12
unduplicated monthly visits, at the State’s election) 13
that is equal to the rates established under this sub-14
section for other such clinics located in the same or 15
adjacent area with a similar case load, or in the ab-16
sence of any such clinic, based on the average per- 17
unit rate for other certified community behavioral 18
health clinics in the State; provided, however, that 19
effective, at latest, as of the 3rd year in which the 20
clinic furnishes such services, the State establishes a 21
unique payment rate for the clinic based on the 22
methodology described in paragraph (2), using al-23
lowable costs from the clinic’s first 2 fiscal years of 24
operation as the basis for establishing such rates; 25
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and provided, additionally, that in any year following 1
the establishment of an initial rate under this para-2
graph, the State plan or waiver provides for the pay-3
ment amount to be calculated in accordance with 4
paragraph (2) or (3) (as applicable). 5
‘‘(5) A
DMINISTRATION IN THE CASE OF MAN -6
AGED CARE.— 7
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In the case of services 8
furnished by a certified community behavioral 9
health clinic pursuant to a contract between the 10
clinic and a managed care entity (as defined in 11
section 1932(a)(1)(B)), the State plan or a 12
waiver of such plan shall provide for 1 of the 13
following: 14
‘‘(i) Payment to the clinic by the 15
State of a supplemental payment equal to 16
the amount (if any) by which the amount 17
determined under paragraph (2), (3), or 18
(4) (as applicable) exceeds the amount of 19
payments under the contract, with such 20
supplemental payment being made pursu-21
ant to a payment schedule agreed to by the 22
State and the certified community behav-23
ioral health clinic, but in no case less fre-24
quently than every 3 months. 25
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‘‘(ii) Delegation by the State to the 1
managed care entity of the obligation to 2
pay the clinic at least the rate determined 3
under paragraph (2), (3), or (4) (as appli-4
cable); provided, however, that the State 5
shall use reconciliation and oversight proc-6
esses to ensure that each clinic is paid at 7
least the amounts required under such 8
paragraphs. 9
‘‘(6) A
LTERNATIVE PAYMENT METHODOLO -10
GIES.—Notwithstanding any other provision of this 11
subsection, the State plan or a waiver of such plan 12
may provide for payment in any year to a certified 13
community behavioral health clinic for services de-14
scribed in paragraph (31) of section 1905(a) in an 15
amount which is determined under an alternative 16
payment methodology that— 17
‘‘(A) is agreed to by the State and the clin-18
ic; and 19
‘‘(B) results in payment to the clinic of an 20
amount which is not less than the amount oth-21
erwise required to be paid to the clinic under 22
this subsection.’’. 23
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TITLE II—COVERAGE OF CER-1
TIFIED COMMUNITY BEHAV-2
IORAL HEALTH CLINIC SERV-3
ICES UNDER THE MEDICARE 4
PROGRAM 5
SEC. 201. COVERAGE OF CERTIFIED COMMUNITY BEHAV-6
IORAL HEALTH CLINIC SERVICES UNDER THE 7
MEDICARE PROGRAM. 8
(a) C
OVERAGE.—Section 1861(s)(2) of the Social Se-9
curity Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(s)(2)) is amended— 10
(1) in subparagraph (II), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 11
the end; 12
(2) in subparagraph (JJ), by inserting ‘‘and’’ 13
at the end; and 14
(3) by adding at the end the following new sub-15
paragraph: 16
‘‘(KK) certified community behavioral health 17
clinic services (as defined in subsection (aa)(8)) fur-18
nished on or after January 1, 2024.’’. 19
(b) D
EFINITIONS.—Section 1861(aa) of the Social 20
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x) is amended— 21
(1) in the heading, by striking ‘‘and Federally 22
Qualified Health Center Services’’ and inserting ‘‘, 23
Federally Qualified Health Center Services, and Cer-24
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tified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Serv-1
ices’’; and 2
(2) by adding at the end the following new 3
paragraph: 4
‘‘(8) The terms ‘certified community behavioral 5
health clinic services’ and ‘certified community behavioral 6
health clinic’ have the meaning given those terms in para-7
graphs (1) and (2), respectively, of section 1905(jj).’’. 8
(c) P
AYMENT.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 1833(a)(1) of the 10
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395l(a)(1)) is 11
amended— 12
(A) by striking ‘‘and (HH)’’ and inserting 13
‘‘(HH)’’; and 14
(B) by inserting before the semicolon at 15
the end the following: ‘‘, and (II) with respect 16
to certified community behavioral health clinic 17
services for which payment is made under sec-18
tion 1834(aa), the amounts paid shall be equal 19
to 80 percent of the lesser of the actual charge 20
or the amount determined under such section’’. 21
(2) D
EVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF 22
PROSPECTIVE PAYMENT SYSTEM .—Section 1834 of 23
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m) is 24
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amended by adding at the end the following new 1
subsection: 2
‘‘(aa) D
EVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF 3
P
ROSPECTIVEPAYMENTSYSTEM FORCERTIFIEDCOM-4
MUNITYBEHAVIORALHEALTHCLINICS.— 5
‘‘(1) D
EVELOPMENT.—The Secretary shall de-6
velop a prospective payment system for payment to 7
certified community behavioral health clinics (as de-8
fined in section 1861(aa)(8)) for the furnishing of 9
certified community behavioral health clinic services 10
(as defined in such section) under this title. Such 11
system shall be established to take into account the 12
type, intensity, and duration of services furnished by 13
certified community behavioral health clinics. Such 14
system may include adjustments, including geo-15
graphic adjustments, as determined appropriate by 16
the Secretary. 17
‘‘(2) I
MPLEMENTATION.— 18
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 19
provide, for cost reporting periods beginning on 20
or after January 1, 2024, for payments of pro-21
spective payment rates for certified community 22
behavioral health clinic services furnished by 23
certified community behavioral health clinics 24
under this title in accordance with the prospec-25
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tive payment system developed by the Secretary 1
under paragraph (1). 2
‘‘(B) I
NITIAL PAYMENTS.—The Secretary 3
shall implement such prospective payment sys-4
tem to reflect the national average allowable 5
service costs of such clinics on the basis of the 6
most current audited cost report data for two 7
fiscal years available to the Secretary; provided 8
that, in the absence of complete actual cost 9
data representing the provision of the full cov-10
ered benefit during the relevant fiscal years, 11
certified community behavioral health clinics 12
may, at the Secretary’s discretion, use esti-13
mated or projected data relating to specific 14
services. Initial payments shall be established 15
without the application of a per visit limit or 16
productivity screen and shall be based on na-17
tional average costs per unit of service, updated 18
as appropriate by the inflationary adjustment 19
described in subparagraph (C). 20
‘‘(C) P
AYMENTS IN SUBSEQUENT YEARS .— 21
Payment rates in years after the year of imple-22
mentation of such system shall be the payment 23
rates in the previous year increased— 24
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‘‘(i) in the first year after implemen-1
tation of such system, by the percentage 2
increase in the MEI (as defined in section 3
1842(i)(3)) for the year involved; and 4
‘‘(ii) in subsequent years, by the per-5
centage increase in a market basket of cer-6
tified community behavioral health clinic 7
services, designed by the Secretary, or if 8
such an index is not available, by the per-9
centage increase in the MEI (as defined in 10
section 1842(i)(3)) for the year involved. 11
‘‘(3) U
NIT OF PAYMENT .—In establishing a 12
prospective payment amount under the system under 13
this subsection, the Secretary shall consider an ap-14
propriate unit of service and a general system design 15
that provides for continued access to quality serv-16
ices. 17
‘‘(4) P
ERIODIC REEVALUATION OF RATES .—At 18
the Secretary’s discretion, the Secretary shall, from 19
time to time, adjust the amounts that would other-20
wise be applicable under subparagraph (2) by a per-21
centage determined appropriate by the Secretary to 22
reflect such factors as changes in the intensity of 23
services furnished within a unit of service, the aver-24
age cost of providing care per unit of service, and 25
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other factors that the Secretary considers to be rel-1
evant. Such adjustment shall be made before the up-2
date under clause (i) or (ii) of paragraph (2)(C)(i) 3
has been applied for the year.’’. 4
(d) W
AIVER OFAPPLICATION OFDEDUCTIBLE.— 5
Section 1833(b)(4) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 6
1395l(b)(4)) is amended by inserting ‘‘or certified commu-7
nity behavioral health clinic services’’ before the comma 8
at the end. 9
(e) PRRB R
EVIEW OFCOSTREPORTS.—Section 10
1878(j) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395oo(j)) 11
is amended by striking ‘‘and a Federally qualified health 12
center’’ and inserting ‘‘, a Federally qualified health cen-13
ter, and a certified community behavioral health clinic’’. 14
(f) S
AFEHARBOR FORWAIVER OFCOINSURANCE.— 15
Section 1128B(b)(3)(D) of the Social Security Act (42 16
U.S.C. 1320a–7b(b)(3)(D)) is amended by inserting ‘‘or 17
a certified community behavioral health clinic’’ after 18
‘‘Federally qualified health care center’’. 19
(g) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 20
this section shall apply with respect to services furnished 21
on or after January 1, 2024. 22
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TITLE III—COMMUNITY BEHAV-1
IORAL HEALTH CLINIC 2
GRANTS 3
SEC. 301. OPERATING GRANTS FOR COMMUNITY BEHAV-4
IORAL HEALTH CLINICS. 5
Part D of title III of the Public Health Service Act 6
(42 U.S.C. 254b et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 7
the following: 8
‘‘Subpart XIII—Community Behavioral Health 9
Clinics 10
‘‘SEC. 340J. DEFINITIONS. 11
‘‘In this subpart: 12
‘‘(1) C
ERTIFIED COMMUNITY BEHAVIORAL 13
HEALTH CLINIC.—The term ‘certified community be-14
havioral health clinic’ has the meaning given the 15
term in section 1905(jj)(2)) of the Social Security 16
Act. 17
‘‘(2) C
ERTIFIED COMMUNITY BEHAVIORAL 18
HEALTH SERVICES.—The term ‘certified community 19
behavioral health services’ has the meaning given the 20
term in section 1905(jj)(1) of the Social Security 21
Act. 22
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‘‘SEC. 340J–1. COMMUNITY BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CLINIC 1
CERTIFICATION. 2
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after 3
the date of enactment of the Ensuring Excellence in Men-4
tal Health Act, the Secretary, after public notice and op-5
portunity for comment, shall publish in the Federal Reg-6
ister criteria for a clinic to be certified as a community 7
behavioral health clinic for purposes of section 8
1905(jj)(2)(D)(ii) of the Social Security Act. 9
‘‘(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.—The criteria published under 10
subsection (a) shall include criteria with respect to the fol-11
lowing: 12
‘‘(1) S
TAFFING.—Staffing requirements, includ-13
ing criteria that staff have diverse disciplinary back-14
grounds, have necessary State-required license and 15
accreditation, and are culturally and linguistically 16
trained to serve the needs of the patient populations 17
of the community behavioral health clinic. 18
‘‘(2) A
VAILABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF 19
SERVICES.—Availability and accessibility of services, 20
including crisis management services that are avail-21
able and accessible 24 hours a day, the use of a slid-22
ing scale for payment, and no rejection for services 23
or limiting of services on the basis of a patient’s 24
ability to pay or a place of residence. 25
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‘‘(3) CARE COORDINATION.—Care coordination, 1
including requirements to coordinate care across set-2
tings and providers to ensure seamless transitions 3
for patients across the full spectrum of health serv-4
ices including acute, chronic, and behavioral health 5
needs. Care coordination requirements shall include 6
partnerships or formal contracts with the following: 7
‘‘(A) Federally-qualified health centers (as 8
defined in section 1905(l) of the Social Security 9
Act) and, as applicable, rural health clinics (as 10
so defined), to provide Federally-qualified 11
health center services (as so defined) and, as 12
applicable, rural health clinic services (as so de-13
fined), to the extent such services are not pro-14
vided directly through the community behav-15
ioral health clinic. 16
‘‘(B) Inpatient psychiatric facilities and 17
substance use detoxification, post-detoxification 18
step-down services, and residential programs. 19
‘‘(C) Other community or regional services, 20
supports, and providers, including schools, child 21
welfare agencies, juvenile and criminal justice 22
agencies and facilities, Indian Health Service 23
youth regional treatment centers, State-licensed 24
and nationally accredited child placing agencies 25
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for therapeutic foster care service, and other so-1
cial and human services. 2
‘‘(D) Medical centers, outpatient clinics, 3
and drop-in centers of the Department of Vet-4
erans Affairs and other facilities of the Depart-5
ment (as defined in section 1701 of title 38, 6
United States Code). 7
‘‘(E) Inpatient acute care hospitals and 8
hospital outpatient clinics. 9
‘‘(4) S
COPE OF SERVICES .—Provision (in a 10
manner reflecting person-centered care) of the full 11
array of certified community behavioral health serv-12
ices which, if not available directly through the com-13
munity behavioral health clinic, are provided or re-14
ferred through formal relationships with other pro-15
viders. 16
‘‘(5) Q
UALITY AND OTHER REPORTING .—Re-17
quirements relating to development by the commu-18
nity behavioral health clinic of an effective procedure 19
for compiling and reporting to the Secretary such 20
statistics and other information as the Secretary 21
may require relating to— 22
‘‘(A) the costs of its operations; 23
‘‘(B) the patterns of use of its services, in-24
cluding the reporting of encounter data, clinical 25
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outcomes data, quality data, and such other 1
data as the Secretary may require; 2
‘‘(C) the availability, accessibility, and ac-3
ceptability of its services; and 4
‘‘(D) such other matters relating to oper-5
ations of the applicant as the Secretary may re-6
quire. 7
‘‘(6) O
RGANIZATIONAL AUTHORITY .—Require-8
ments that a community behavioral health clinic 9
be— 10
‘‘(A) a nonprofit entity; 11
‘‘(B) part of a local government behavioral 12
health authority; 13
‘‘(C) operated under the authority of the 14
Indian Health Service; 15
‘‘(D) operated by an Indian Tribe or Trib-16
al organization pursuant to a contract, grant, 17
cooperative agreement, or compact with the In-18
dian Health Service pursuant to the Indian 19
Self-Determination and Education Assistance 20
Act; or 21
‘‘(E) operated by an urban Indian organi-22
zation pursuant to a grant or contract with the 23
Indian Health Service under title V of the In-24
dian Health Care Improvement Act. 25
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‘‘SEC. 340J–2. OPERATING GRANTS FOR COMMUNITY BE-1
HAVIORAL HEALTH CLINICS. 2
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish a 3
grant program under which the Secretary shall award 4
grants to eligible community behavioral health clinics to 5
provide (in a manner reflecting person-centered care) the 6
full array of certified community behavioral health serv-7
ices. 8
‘‘(b) E
LIGIBILITY.—To be eligible to receive a grant 9
under subsection (a), a community behavioral health clinic 10
shall be— 11
‘‘(1) a certified community behavioral health 12
clinic; or 13
‘‘(2) a community behavioral health clinic that 14
indicates in the grant application that the clinic will 15
use the grant funds to meet the criteria described in 16
section 340J–1(a). 17
‘‘(c) U
SE OFFUNDS.—A community behavioral 18
health clinic that receives a grant under subsection (a)— 19
‘‘(1) shall use the grant funds— 20
‘‘(A) to provide the services described in 21
subsection (a); and 22
‘‘(B) in the case of a community behavioral 23
health clinic described in subsection (b)(2), to 24
meet the criteria described in section 340J– 25
1(a); and 26
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‘‘(2) may use the grant funds— 1
‘‘(A) to carry out other activities that— 2
‘‘(i) reduce costs associated with the 3
provision of certified community behavioral 4
health services; 5
‘‘(ii) improve access to, and avail-6
ability of, certified community behavioral 7
health services provided to individuals 8
served by the community behavioral health 9
clinic; 10
‘‘(iii) enhance the quality and coordi-11
nation of certified community behavioral 12
health services; or 13
‘‘(iv) improve the health status of 14
communities; and 15
‘‘(B) to pay for— 16
‘‘(i) the costs of acquiring and leasing 17
buildings and equipment (including the 18
costs of amortizing the principal of, and 19
paying interest on, loans); 20
‘‘(ii) costs relating to the purchase or 21
lease of equipment, including data and in-22
formation systems and behavioral health 23
information technology to facilitate data 24
reporting and other purposes; 25
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‘‘(iii) the costs of in-service staff 1
training and other operational or infra-2
structure costs identified by the Secretary; 3
and 4
‘‘(iv) costs associated with expanding 5
and modernizing existing buildings or con-6
structing new buildings (including the 7
costs of amortizing the principal of, and 8
paying the interest on, loans), if such costs 9
are specifically allowed for in the grant op-10
portunity published by the Secretary. 11
‘‘(d) T
ERM.—Grants awarded under subsection (a) 12
shall be for a period of not more than 5 years. 13
‘‘(e) C
ONDITION ONRECEIPT OFFUNDS.—The Sec-14
retary shall not make a grant to an applicant under sub-15
section (a) unless the applicant provides assurances to the 16
Secretary that within 120 days of receiving grant funding 17
for the operation of the clinic, the applicant will submit 18
for approval by the Secretary an implementation plan that 19
describes how the applicant will— 20
‘‘(1) provide the services described in subsection 21
(a); and 22
‘‘(2) in the case of a community behavioral 23
health clinic described in subsection (b)(2), meet the 24
criteria described in section 340J–1(a). 25
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‘‘(f) AMOUNT OFGRANT.— 1
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 2
the amount of a grant made in any fiscal year to a 3
community behavioral health clinic under subsection 4
(a) shall be determined by the Secretary based on 5
information provided by the community behavioral 6
health clinic, but may not exceed an amount equal 7
to the difference obtained by subtracting— 8
‘‘(A) the sum obtained by adding— 9
‘‘(i) the total State, local, and other 10
operational funding provided to the clinic 11
for such fiscal year; and 12
‘‘(ii) the fees, premiums, and third- 13
party reimbursements that the clinic rea-14
sonably expects to receive for its operations 15
in such fiscal year; from 16
‘‘(B) the costs of operating the clinic to 17
meet the purposes and requirements of the 18
grant program under this section during such 19
fiscal year. 20
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENT.— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In determining the 22
costs described in paragraph (1)(B), the Sec-23
retary may estimate the anticipated costs of the 24
grant recipient in— 25
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‘‘(i) providing the services described in 1
subsection (a), including the anticipated 2
costs of providing any individual certified 3
community behavioral health service that 4
the applicant entity does not have cost ex-5
perience providing at the time of submit-6
ting an application for such grant; and 7
‘‘(ii) if applicable, meeting the criteria 8
described in section 340J–1(a). 9
‘‘(B) A
NTICIPATED COSTS.—The Secretary 10
shall base the estimate of anticipated costs 11
under subparagraph (A) on an estimate of an-12
ticipated costs provided by the applicable com-13
munity behavioral health clinic. 14
‘‘(3) P
AYMENTS.—The Secretary may— 15
‘‘(A) award grants under subsection (a)— 16
‘‘(i) in advance or through reimburse-17
ment; and 18
‘‘(ii) in installments; 19
‘‘(B) make adjustments to account for 20
overpayments or underpayments. 21
‘‘(g) U
SE OFACCREDITATION.— 22
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In selecting grant recipi-23
ents under this section, the Secretary may take into 24
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account whether an applicant community behavioral 1
health clinic is accredited under section 340J–5(a). 2
‘‘(2) C
OMPLIANCE.—In determining whether a 3
community behavioral health clinic receiving a grant 4
under this section is providing the services described 5
in subsection (a) and, if applicable, meeting the cri-6
teria described in section 340J–1(a), the Secretary 7
may take into account whether the community be-8
havioral health clinic is accredited under section 9
340J–5(a). 10
‘‘(h) A
UTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.— 11
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—There is authorized to be 12
appropriated to carry out this section, $552,500,000 13
for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028. 14
‘‘(2) M
AINTENANCE OF FUNDING .—The 15
amount made available under paragraph (1) shall 16
supplement (and not supplant) any other Federal 17
funding made available for community behavioral 18
health clinics. 19
‘‘SEC. 340J–3. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE. 20
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after 21
the date of enactment of the Ensuring Excellence in Men-22
tal Health Act, the Secretary shall establish programs 23
through which the Secretary shall provide (either through 24
the Department of Health and Human Services or by 25
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grant or contract) technical assistance and other assist-1
ance to any of the following: 2
‘‘(1) Entities that receive a grant under section 3
340J–2. 4
‘‘(2) Entities participating in a Medicaid dem-5
onstration program under section 223(d) of the Pro-6
tecting Access to Medicare Act. 7
‘‘(3) Certified community behavioral health clin-8
ics (as defined in sections 1861(aa)(8) and 9
1905(jj)(2) of the Social Security Act), furnishing 10
services under title XVIII or title XIX of such Act. 11
‘‘(4) Health or social service provider organiza-12
tions pursuing or considering certified community 13
behavioral health clinic status or partnering with 14
certified community behavioral health clinics. 15
‘‘(5) Other stakeholders, for the purpose of fa-16
cilitating successful implementation of the certified 17
community behavioral health clinic model. 18
‘‘(b) I
NCLUSIONS.—Assistance provided by the Sec-19
retary under subsection (a) may include technical and 20
nonfinancial assistance, including— 21
‘‘(1) fiscal and program management assist-22
ance; 23
‘‘(2) operational and administrative support; 24
and 25
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‘‘(3) the provision of information to the entities 1
about the variety of resources available under this 2
part and how those resources can be best used to 3
meet the health and behavioral health needs of the 4
communities served by the entities. 5
‘‘(c) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 6
is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 7
$6,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028. 8
‘‘SEC. 340J–4. DATA INFRASTRUCTURE FOR COMMUNITY 9
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CLINIC REPORTING. 10
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after 11
the date of enactment of the Ensuring Excellence in Men-12
tal Health Act, the Secretary shall establish a system 13
under which the Secretary shall collect and analyze data 14
on community behavioral health clinics. 15
‘‘(b) S
COPE OFDATACOLLECTION.—The system es-16
tablished under subsection (a) shall be used by the Sec-17
retary to collect and analyze data from— 18
‘‘(1) entities that receive a grant under section 19
340J–2; and 20
‘‘(2) organizations that provide services, or have 21
applied to provide services, under title XVIII of the 22
Social Security Act, as described in section 23
1861(aa)(8) of such Act, or under a State Medicaid 24
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program in accordance with section 1905(jj) of such 1
Act. 2
‘‘(c) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 3
is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 4
$51,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028. 5
‘‘SEC. 340J–5. COMMUNITY BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CLINIC 6
ACCREDITATION. 7
‘‘(a) A
CCREDITATIONSTANDARDS.—A community 8
behavioral health clinic may be accredited if the entity— 9
‘‘(1) meets the standards of an approved ac-10
creditation body; and 11
‘‘(2) authorizes the accreditation body to sub-12
mit to the Secretary (or such agency as the Sec-13
retary may designate) such records or other infor-14
mation as the Secretary may require. 15
‘‘(b) A
PPROVAL OFACCREDITATIONBODIES.— 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary may approve 17
a private nonprofit organization to be an accredita-18
tion body for the accreditation of community behav-19
ioral health clinics under subsection (a) if— 20
‘‘(A) using inspectors qualified to evaluate 21
quality of care in a behavioral health service 22
setting, the accreditation body agrees to inspect 23
the clinic with such frequency as is determined 24
by the Secretary; 25
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‘‘(B) the standards applied by the body in 1
determining whether or not to accredit a clinic 2
correspond to the criteria described in section 3
340J–1(a), and are not less restrictive than 4
such criteria; 5
‘‘(C) there is adequate provision for assur-6
ing that the standards of the accreditation body 7
continue to be met by the clinic; 8
‘‘(D) in the case of any clinic previously 9
accredited by the body which has had its ac-10
creditation denied, suspended, withdrawn, or re-11
voked or which has had any other action taken 12
against it by the accrediting body, the accred-13
iting body agrees to submit to the Secretary the 14
name of such clinic within 30 days of the action 15
taken; and 16
‘‘(E) if the accreditation body has its ap-17
proval withdrawn by the Secretary, the body 18
agrees to notify each clinic accredited by the 19
body of the withdrawal within 10 days of the 20
withdrawal.’’. 21
Æ
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