Bill Summaries: H855 STRENGTHENING CARE FOR FAMILIES AND CHILDREN.

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  • Summary date: May 30 2023 - View Summary

    House committee substitute to the 1st edition makes the following changes. Allocates an additional $500,000 from the $1 billion appropriated from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Temporary Savings Fund to the Department of Health and Human Service’s (DHHS) Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services, for grants made to an owner, proprietor, local government, or person in control of a garage that has a vertical height above three stories (or 30 feet) for funds to purchase signage providing information on suicide prevention that must be posted on each floor of the garage above three stories or 30 feet in height, and in each elevator lobby, so that there are now six specified allocations of funds (was, five). Requires DHHS to develop and post on its website the mechanism by which an applicant can apply for grant funding and any design suggestions or requirements for signage purchased with grant funding.

    Changes the amount of funds allocated to DHHS for administrative purposes from the $1 billion appropriated from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Temporary Savings Funds from $1 million to $500,000.


  • Summary date: Apr 25 2023 - View Summary

    Appropriates $1 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Temporary Savings Fund (established under Section 1.3 of SL 2023-7) to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in nonrecurring funds to be allocated in specified amounts and used as described below. Specifies that the funds will become available during the course of the 2023-2025 fiscal biennium as the funds are deposited into the ARPA Temporary Savings Fund. Prevents DHHS from providing allocations of the funds appropriated by the act until the funds are available within the ARPA Temporary Savings Fund, in whole or in part. When any portion of the funds appropriated by the act becomes available, the Secretary of DHHS must promptly allocate those funds for the uses described below and, at the discretion of the Secretary, must prioritize the allocations, taking into account any timelines for the use of the funds, the best interest of the citizens of the State, and the avoidance of any disruption in services to those citizens. Effective on the date the Current Operations Appropriations Act (Act) for the 2023-2024 fiscal year becomes law or July 1, 2023, whichever is later. Specifies that if, by June 30, 2024, no Act for the 2023-2024 fiscal year has become law, then the act expires on that date.

    Allocates specified funds to the Division of Child and Family Well-Being as follows: to expand access to family partners capable of supporting the caregivers of children with high behavioral health needs; to expand intensive supports in the community that facilitate the coordination of wraparound services for families; to increase structured options for trained and licensed parents to meet the needs of children in crisis, such as Intensive Alternative Family Treatment services; to strengthen and expand specialized behavioral health treatment options in community, residential, and inpatient settings for children to divert them from emergency departments; to launch community assessment teams to facilitate the provision of behavioral health services to children within their communities by clinicians who specialize in working with children; for the statewide expansion of school behavioral health services.

    Allocates specified funds to the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services as follows: for behavioral health mobile crisis teams able to address the needs to children experiencing a behavioral health crisis; to increase the number of youth crisis stabilization beds available statewide and to create reserve crisis stabilization bed capacity; the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline; to be used as start-up funding for new mobile crisis teams; to develop new behavioral health urgent care and facility-based crisis combination facilities, peer drop-in facilities, and additional North Carolina Systemic, Therapeutic, Assessment, Resources and Treatment (NC START) respite locations; a pilot program transporting individuals needing psychiatric hospitalization from hospital emergency departments and behavioral health urgent care facilities to the inpatient facility at which a bed has been located for each individual; and for housing supports for individuals with serious mental illness and competitive integrated employment training that enhances employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities; to expand the number of certified community behavioral health clinics in this State; for an education campaign to reduce stigma around mental health; for the development of a workforce training center that provides training to behavioral health and intellectual and developmental disabilities providers at no charge to the provider; to operate community-based pre-arrest diversion and reentry programs and to fund local partnerships between law enforcement, counties, and behavioral health providers; to operate both community-based and detention center-based restoration programs; for judicial education programs designed to increase understanding of mental health issues and behavioral health treatment options; to be used to support individualized community-based treatment and support for adults with long lengths of stay or repeated stays at State-operated psychiatric hospitals; to recruit and retain the healthcare workforce at State-operated healthcare facilities; to implement electronic medical records in all State-operated healthcare facilities; for the purchase of automated medication dispensing cabinets at State-operated healthcare facilities; to expand the centralized bed  registry, known as BHSCAN; to provide funding and technological assistance to behavioral healthcare providers related to the modernization of data and technology.

    Allocates specified funds to the Division of Social Services as follows: (1) to provide Division-based supports  for families, including professional foster parenting programs; (2) to provide funding for intensive supports in the community, such as (i) programs that specialize in collaborating with parents who struggle with substance use and (ii) teams that coordinate and provide wraparound family services including specified Division programs such as the Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Team and Safe Babies Court; and (3) to strengthen and expand the child welfare workforce.

    Allocates specified funds to the Division of Health Benefits to increase connections between primary care providers and psychiatry services.

    Allocates specified funds to the Division of Central Management and Support, Office of Rural Health to expand the North Carolina Loan Repayment Program to include all licensed providers of behavioral health services practicing in rural and underserved areas of the State who are enrolled Medicaid providers and to increase access to telehealth services in rural and underserved areas of the State

    Allocates the specified funds to the Division of Health Benefits to be used to increase rates paid to Medicaid behavioral healthcare providers for a period of three years.

    Allocates the specified funds to DHHS to be used for administrative purposes related to one or more programs for which funds have been allocated as described above, including creating up to 48 time-limited positions. 

    Requires DHHS to submit quarterly reports to the specified NCGA committees and the Fiscal Research Division on the use of funds and other specified information beginning January 1, 2024.  Provides for termination date of the reporting requirement.