February 2020 Legislative Update:

  • Bill Tracking Chart
  • Legislation Advancing
  • Budget Items
  • Advocacy Day Crowd!

Mental Health Advocacy Day a Success!

On February 5 th more than 100 of us, from all over the state, met with delegates and senators to tell our story and ask for their support to improve Virginia’s ranking from 41st in the country in access to mental health care. We encouraged full funding for Virginia’s community mental health system, the 40 local Community Services Boards.

We pointed out pending budget amendments to provide a behavioral health loan repayment program , to help recruit a mental health and substance use workforce to locate in under-served communities. 

We explained the need to increase the Medicaid reimbursement rates for mental health professionals to equal that of Medicare and private insurance, so more of them can take Medicaid cases. Responses were respectful, and generally encouraging. 

Ultimately, the act of participation itself was empowering. In the company of others, it felt safe, energizing, and hopeful. 

Thank you to our partners: NAMI Virginia, SAARA of Virginia, VOCAL, Voices for Virginia’s Children, and all the advocates who participated. 

Mental Health Legislation on the Move

Virginia legislators are deliberating a record number of bills, keeping late hours as they approach the half-way point in their 60-day session in Richmond. MHAV has testified at several committee meetings on bills that support our priorities. We are monitoring around 100 mental health related bills, and those still alive can be seen on our Bill Tracking Chart.



Just a few of the proposals we are following that are still active:
 
SB 280 (Barker) – Passed Committee – Pending Senate vote
Health insurance; mental health parity, required report.
Commission to report findings regarding parity of mental health and substance abuse disorder benefits with medical and surgical benefits, and access to mental health and substance abuse disorder services, by December 1, 2020.
 
SB 667 (Boysko) – Passed committee, pending Senate vote
Overdoses - Provides that no individual shall be subject to arrest or prosecution for illegal drugs when obtaining emergency medical attention for an overdose. This could save lives by encouraging someone who has overdosed or is with someone who overdosed to seek medical help without fear of being arrested – if the evidence would have been obtained only as a result seeking emergency medical attention.

HB 908 (Hayes) – Passed the House, will go to Senate this week
Naloxone - Clarifies that an employee or other person in a public place who has completed a training program on the administration of naloxone or other opioid antidote may administer it in order to help someone who has overdosed. 
 
SJ 35 (Edwards) – Passed the Senate, will go to the House this week
Barrier Crimes, Criminal History - Establishes a committee to study the state’s requirements related to criminal history checks that exclude automatically some otherwise qualified individuals from employment in the behavioral health field.

HB 1540 (Collins) – Passed the House, will go to the Senate this week
Barrier Crimes, Criminal History – Clarifies existing law and expands slightly the ability of behavioral health care providers to hire otherwise qualified applicants.

HB 42   (Samirah) – Passed House, will go to Senate this week
Screening for prenatal and postpartum depression, training.  Encourages physicians and nurses to screen every patient who is pregnant or who has been pregnant within the previous five years for prenatal or postnatal depression or other depression, as clinically appropriate. It also provides physicians and nurses information on the factors that may increase susceptibility of certain patients to depression, including racial and economic disparities.

HB 74 (Kory) – Passed committee, pending House vote
Teacher education on mental health - Requires local school boards to adopt policies that require each teacher and other relevant personnel to complete a mental health awareness training or similar program.

HB 1419 (Jones) – Passed committee, pending House vote
SB 171 (Locke) – Passed Senate
Training for School Resource Officers - Specifies that the required training for law enforcement officers working as School Resource Officers must include: “…(iv) mediation and conflict resolution, including de-escalation techniques; ... (vi) awareness of cultural diversity and implicit bias; (vii) working with students with disabilities, mental health needs, substance abuse disorders, or past traumatic experiences; and student behavioral dynamics, including current child and adolescent development and brain research;…”

HB 1508 (McQuinn) – Passed Committee, pending House vote
Minimum Staffing Ratio for School Counselors - Requires Local school boards to employ one full-time equivalent school counselor position per 250 students (was amended to 325 students) in grades kindergarten through 12. (Still an improvement!)

SB 215 (Sutterlein) – Passed Senate, will go to House
Inmate Death Investigations – Report – Requires the Board of Corrections to make public results of its investigations on their website. Includes investigations when inadequate mental health care is a factor.
 
Contact your Delegate and Senator to show your support for mental health!

You can find delegate and senator phone numbers and emails
by  clicking here  

Mental Health America of Virginia, NAMI Virginia, SAARA of Virginia, VOCAL, Voices for Virginia's Children

2020 Mental Health Budget Priorities

We call on the General Assembly to support the following budget amendments:

1.      STEP-VA: Fully Fund Outpatient Mental Health, Peer Support, Mobile Crisis teams & Veterans Services
Included in the Governor’s Introduced Budget
  •  STEP-VA is a roadmap for how Virginia is transforming its public behavioral health system. The broad goals of STEP-VA are to increase access, promote consistency of services and strengthen the quality of behavioral health services offered at all 40 CSBs.

  • Building off progress and investments in STEP-VA since 2017, the Governor’s budget this year includes funding to building out the following services: Outpatient mental health services for children and adults, mobile crisis teams, peer and family supports services and veteran services.

2.      Support Behavioral Health Workforce Needs through the following efforts:

Behavioral Health Loan Repayment Program
Item 295 #1s (Barker) & Item 295 #1h (Hope): $2.25 Million GF per yr.
  • This amendment establishes the Behavioral Health Loan Repayment Program to increase the number of behavioral health practitioners by way of an educational loan repayment incentive that complements and coordinates with existing efforts to recruit and retain providers in the Commonwealth.

  • This program would allow for behavioral health providers to receive a student loan repayment award for up to 25% of student loan debt in exchange for each year of service in underserved communities.

  • This provides behavioral providers the opportunity to fully pay off their student loan debt while providing four years of service to the Commonwealth.

Increase Mental Health Provider Rates
Included in the Governor’s Introduced Budget: $2.37 Million GF/FY21 & $2.46 Million GF/FY22
  • This amendment raises rates for psychiatric services by 14.7 percent. This action increases rates to the equivalent of 110 percent of the 2019 Medicare rates for these services.

  • Current Medicaid reimbursement rates for mental health services provided by a LMHP are significantly lower than Medicare and commercial insurers.

  • Given the critical shortage of LMHP in Virginia, increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates may incentivize providers to accept additional Medicaid patients and ensure access to specialized mental health services.

3.      Increase Rate for Early Intervention Case Management Services
Item 313 #55h (Robinson) & Item 313 #46s (Ruff): $3.5 Million GF per yr.
  • Targeted case management (also referred as EI Service Coordination) is a service that assists the child and family in gaining access to needed and appropriate medical, social, educational and other services.

  • The demand for Early Intervention services has increased by 78 percent over 10 years, creating higher caseloads but not enough funding to manage those caseloads.

  • This amendment provides $3.5 million from the general fund and $3.5 million from federal Medicaid matching funds each year to increase the early intervention case management rate from $132 to $242.73. The current reimbursement rate does not cover the cost of providing these services. 

4 . Transportation for Individuals from State Hospitals
Item 321 #4s (Deeds): $1.1 million FY21 & $781,494 FY22
  • Oftentimes, individuals under a Temporary Detention order (TDO) are transported to a state facility that is hours away from the individual’s home location and therefore upon discharge may have difficulty getting transportation back to their home location.

  • This amendment funds the transportation costs of patients discharged from state hospitals that were admitted under a Temporary Detention Order (TDO).

  • This funding request covers the cost of 100 percent of transports of all individuals admitted to a state hospital under a TDO. 
 
5. Substance Use Disorder Funding and Services

We ask that you support funding, services, and resources, including recovery housing, that assist people in reaching and maintaining recovery from substance use disorder.   

You can find delegate and senator phone numbers and emails
by  clicking here  
MHAV's Virginia Peer Recovery Specialist Network provides professional development and networking for Virginia's peer recovery workforce. For more information , click here.
Virginia's Statewide, Peer-Run Warm Line
(866) 400-6428

Monday through Friday from 9AM to 9PM
Saturday and Sunday from 5PM to 9PM

Your donation helps us offer non-judgmental peer support and prevent crisis situations. 

Your support also provides scholarships to our recovery education programs, and helps us to continue spreading awareness and advocating for better mental health policies across Virginia.

Please invest in mental health today. Thank you!
Mental Health America of Virginia | (804) 257-5591 | E-mail | Website

To educate, empower, and advocate to improve mental health for all Virginians
Please conside r making a donation to support mental health and wellness in Virginia! Click here to make a tax-deductible donation .
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