Mental-health bill made into fed law
Legislation touted as a broad reform within the $130 billion-a-year mental-health system became federal law Tuesday.
President Obama signed Rep. Tim Murphy’s “Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act” as part of a larger health-care reform package.
Murphy’s efforts to overhaul the nation’s sprawling system for providing mental-health care began in the wake of a mass shooting four years ago that left six adults and 20 children dead at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. The legislation provides an additional $150 million in federal spending over 10 years.
“Through congressional hearings and an in-depth investigation, we discovered the fatal disconnect between 112 federal agencies assigned to treat the mentally ill,” said Murphy, a psychologist. “We exposed a $130 billion-dollar investment wasted on feel-good fads that have done little to treat the ill as the rates of homelessness, incarceration, suicide and drug overdose deaths soar.”
During a ceremony at the White House, Obama said the legislation he signed “takes steps to insure that mental illnesss and substance-use disorders are treated fairly by insurance companies” and highlighted suicide-prevention programs it reauthorizes.
“Many of these reforms align with my administration’s work to improve our criminal justice system,” Obama said.
Among the provisions Murphy sought is clarification of how privacy constraints under the Health Insurance Portability Act apply in the care of people with mental illness and alcohol or drug addiction. In his more ambitious intial proposal, he tried to relax privacy rules in some cases to allow for communication between health-care providers and the families of mental health patients. The law signed by the president directs the Department of Health and Human Services to clarify when a health-care provider may disclose information related to the treatment of a person with mental illness or a substance disorder.
The legislation also extends short-term care allowances for severe mental-health episodes to 15 days.
It also extends the longevity of existing suicide-prevention programs and directs additional money to programs directed at those over 25.
Measures in the Mental Health Crisis Act also broaden some federal grant programs for law enforcement and other first responders, including to fund training on responding to mental-health emergencies.
Murphy, R-18th, said the law “will save lives because someone in psychiatric crisis should get treatment in a hospital bed and not locked up in a jail cell or dumped onto the street. To every family member, to the tens of thousands who reached out to me, to those who stepped forward to share their story of serious mental illness and be a voice for change, my deepest gratitude for your courageous stand to help families in mental-health crisis.”