HBA-MPM C.S.S.B. 1234 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.S.B. 1234 By: Nelson Public Health 4/30/1999 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, the comptroller, according to the Texas Performance Review, recommends that state law should be amended to increase local control of spending for children's mental health services. The Health and Human Services Commission (commission) estimates that two-thirds of Texas children with severe emotional and behavioral problems do not receive the appropriate and comprehensive help they need. This is due in part to the fact that such children often need a variety of services, yet services are fragmented among a number of different agencies, programs, and funding sources, each with different regulations and eligibility requirements. C.S.S.B. 1234 creates a mechanism to allow the Texas Integrated Funding Initiative to award grants to community-based projects for mental health services and allow the commission to establish awards criteria and an evaluation system in order to facilitate more grants being awarded at the local level. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Health and Human Services Commission in SECTION 1 (Sections 531.252 and 531.256, Health and Safety Code) of this bill. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Chapter 531, Government Code, by adding Subchapter G, as follows: SUBCHAPTER G. DEVELOPING LOCAL MENTAL HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS FOR CERTAIN CHILDREN Sec. 531.251. PILOT PROJECT CONSORTIUM; EXPANSION PLAN. Requires the Health and Human Services Commission (commission) to form a consortium to develop criteria for and implement the expansion of the Texas Integrated Funding Initiative (TIFI) Pilot Project and to develop local mental health care systems in communities for minors receiving residential mental health services or who are at risk of residential placement to receive mental health services. Requires the consortium to include representatives of certain state entities and an equal number of family advocates. Requires the commission and consortium to perform certain duties with respect to the TIFI pilot project. Sec. 531.252. PROPOSALS FOR EXPANSION COMMUNITIES. Requires the commission, by rule, to establish a request-for-proposal process to select expansion communities to participate in TIFI. Requires the commission and consortium to develop certain criteria to evaluate proposals for selecting expansion communities to participate in the expanded initiative. Provides that populations to be served under the proposals for selecting expansion communities must include certain youth at risk of residential placement, incarceration, or reincarceration because of severe emotional disturbance. Provides that outcome criteria established for expansion communities must be consistent with outcome measures used in evaluations of individualized children's services projects in other states. Sec. 531.253. SELECTION OF EXPANSION COMMUNITIES. Requires the commission and consortium to review proposals for expansion communities and approve participation of no more than six communities to participate in TIFI. Provides that the communities must be those that best meet the criteria developed under Section 531.252, Government Code. Sec. 521.254. SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT COLLABORATION. Requires the commission, the consortium, and the expansion communities to collaborate to develop and to share technical assistance and training resources to aid communities in developing local systems for delivering mental health services to minors. Sec. 531.255. EVALUATION. (a) Requires the commission and the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (MHMR) to jointly monitor the progress of the expansion communities. (b) Requires the commission, the consortium, and the expansion communities to collaborate to develop an evaluative system regarding the expansion communities in achieving certain outcome goals. Provides that the evaluation must include information on cost avoidance and net savings resulting from participation in TIFI. (c) Requires each expansion community to identify the baseline information to compare with the information on outcomes in evaluating the achievements of the community. Provides that the community is responsible for collecting and reporting this information to the commission according to the requirements of the evaluation system. (d) Requires an expansion community, to the extent practicable, to use instruments to measure outcomes that have known reliability and validity and that allow comparisons with similar projects in other states and with national evaluation efforts. Sec. 531.256. MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR YOUTH GRANTS. Requires the commission to expand TIFI to enable TIFI to award grants for community projects for mental health services for youth on or before September 1, 2001. Requires the commission, by rule, to develop criteria for awarding grants under this section to encourage certain community goals. Authorizes the grants to be paid from the fund developed for TIFI, and authorizes the commission to establish and identify money for related projects. Sec. 531.257. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR GRANT PROJECTS. Authorizes the commission to provide technical assistance to a community that receives a grant under Section 531.256, Government Code. Sec. 531.258. STATEWIDE EVALUATION SYSTEM. Requires the commission to develop an evaluation system to measure outcomes of TIFI. SECTION 2. Requires the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services, Texas Education Agency, MHMR, Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Texas Youth Commission, and Texas Juvenile Probation Commission to each transfer to the commission $30,000 in fiscal year 2000 and $70,000 in fiscal year 2001, to finance TIFI. Requires the commission to promote the participation of new communities in and projects for TIFI to attract matching funds and local participation. SECTION 3.Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.S.B. 1234 differs from the original bill as follows: SECTION 1 of the substitute adds new Sections 531.251-531.255, Government Code. Please see the Section-by-Section Analysis of this document. Section 531.256 of the substitute is redesignated from Section 531.251 of the original and makes no change. Section 531.257 of the substitute is redesignated from Section 531.252 of the original and makes a conforming change. Section 531.258 of the substitute is redesignated from Section 531.253 of the original, and requires the commission to develop an evaluation system to measure outcomes of TIFI, rather than to measure outcomes of projects for services associated with TIFI.