Congress passes emergency psychiatric care, newborn opioid dependency bills

Nov 17, 2015 - 03:22 PM

The House of Representatives yesterday approved two AHA-supported bills, sending them to the president for his signature. The Improving Access to Emergency Psychiatric Care Act (S. 599) would extend the Medicaid Emergency Psychiatric Demonstration Program through September 2016, as long as it does not increase Medicaid spending, and expand the program to public facilities. The program allows eligible states to pay certain institutions for mental disease for emergency psychiatric care provided to Medicaid enrollees aged 21 to 64. The bill also allows the Department of Health and Human Services to extend the program for three more years and to more states, subject to the same budget-neutrality standard, and requires HHS to recommend by April 2019 whether to make the program permanent. The Protecting Our Infants Act (S. 799) directs the Secretary to develop a strategy and recommendations to decrease the number of infants with opioid dependency, and encourages HHS to work with states to improve the public health response to this epidemic.

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