II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1056
To establish a home-based telemental health care grant program for purposes
of increasing mental health and substance use services in rural medically
underserved populations and for individuals in farming, fishing, and
forestry occupations.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH13, 2025
Mr. R
OUNDS(for himself and Ms. SMITH) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To establish a home-based telemental health care grant pro-
gram for purposes of increasing mental health and sub-
stance use services in rural medically underserved popu-
lations and for individuals in farming, fishing, and for-
estry occupations.
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
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Home-Based Tele-4
mental Health Care Act of 2025’’. 5
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:11 Mar 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1056.IS S1056
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•S 1056 IS
SEC. 2. MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE USE SERVICES 1
DELIVERED TO RURAL UNDERSERVED POPU-2
LATIONS VIA TELEMENTAL HEALTH CARE. 3
Title III of the Public Health Service Act is amended 4
by inserting after section 330K (42 U.S.C. 254c–16) the 5
following: 6
‘‘SEC. 330K–1. MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE USE SERV-7
ICES DELIVERED TO RURAL UNDERSERVED 8
POPULATIONS VIA TELEMENTAL HEALTH 9
CARE. 10
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 11
‘‘(1) the term ‘covered populations’ means— 12
‘‘(A) health professional shortage areas (as 13
defined in section 332(a)(1)) in rural areas; or 14
‘‘(B) populations engaged in a farming, 15
fishing, or forestry industry; 16
‘‘(2) the term ‘eligible entity’ means a public or 17
nonprofit private telemental health provider network 18
that offers services that include mental health and 19
substance use services provided by professionals 20
trained in mental health and substance use; 21
‘‘(3) the term ‘farming, fishing, or forestry in-22
dustry’ means an occupation defined as a farming, 23
fishing, or forestry occupation by the Department of 24
Labor in accordance with the Standard Occupational 25
Classification System; 26
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:11 Mar 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1056.IS S1056
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
•S 1056 IS
‘‘(4) the term ‘home-based telemental’ means 1
the use of telemental health services where the pa-2
tient is in his or her own home or other place of 3
comfort; 4
‘‘(5) the term ‘professional trained in mental 5
health’ means a psychiatrist, a qualified mental 6
health professional (as defined in section 330K), or 7
another mental health professional acting under the 8
direction of a psychiatrist; 9
‘‘(6) the term ‘rural’ has the meaning given 10
such term by the Office of Rural Health Policy of 11
the Health Resources and Services Administration; 12
and 13
‘‘(7) the term ‘telemental health’ means the use 14
of electronic information and telecommunications 15
technologies to support long distance clinical health 16
care, patient and professional health-related edu-17
cation, public health, and health administration. 18
‘‘(b) P
ROGRAMAUTHORIZED.—The Secretary, in 19
consultation with the Rural Health Liaison of the Depart-20
ment of Agriculture, shall award grants to eligible entities 21
to expand and enhance access to mental health and sub-22
stance use services for covered populations in their homes 23
or other places of comfort, as delivered remotely by profes-24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:11 Mar 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1056.IS S1056
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
•S 1056 IS
sionals trained in mental health and substance use using 1
telemental health care. 2
‘‘(c) U
SE OFFUNDS.—Recipients of a grant under 3
this section shall use the grant funds to— 4
‘‘(1) deliver home-based telemental health serv-5
ices to covered populations; 6
‘‘(2) develop comprehensive metrics to measure 7
the quality and impact of home-based telemental 8
health services compared to traditional in-person 9
mental health and substance use care; and 10
‘‘(3) support infrastructure that enhances the 11
capacity of health care providers to deliver tele-12
mental health services in patients’ homes or other 13
places of comfort, including by— 14
‘‘(A) expanding broadband access; 15
‘‘(B) providing devices for patients to ac-16
cess telemental health services; and 17
‘‘(C) offsetting costs of technology nec-18
essary for health care providers to deliver high 19
quality care. 20
‘‘(d) R
EPORT.—The Secretary, in consultation with 21
the Secretary of Agriculture, not later than 3 years after 22
the date on which the program under this section com-23
mences, and 2 years thereafter, shall submit to the appro-24
priate congressional committees reports on the impact and 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:11 Mar 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1056.IS S1056
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5
•S 1056 IS
quality of care of home-based telemental health care serv-1
ices for covered populations. 2
‘‘(e) A
UTHORIZEDUSE OFFUNDS.—Out of any 3
amounts made available to the Secretary, up to 4
$10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029 5
may be allocated to carrying out the program under this 6
section.’’. 7
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:11 Mar 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1056.IS S1056
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS