• Established a new HHS assistant secretary for mental health and substance abuse to coordinate federal initiatives.
• Creates a Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee of federal agencies to make recommendations to Congress for better coordination of services for people with serious mental illness.
• Establishes the National Mental Health and Substance Use Policy Laboratory to promote evidence-based delivery models.
• Requires states to spend at least 10% of their annual mental health block grants on programs addressing the needs of people with serious mental illness.
• Clarifies that Medicaid permits same-day billing for the provision of mental health and primary-care services.
• Directs the CMS to report on the impact of the new federal rule permitting Medicaid coverage of short stays in inpatient psychiatric and substance abuse treatment facilities for people in Medicaid managed care.
• Strengthens federal guidance, enforcement and reporting of health insurers' compliance with the law requiring equal coverage of physical health, mental health and substance abuse treatment.
• Offers grants to enhance community-based crisis-response services and develop local tracking systems for psychiatric inpatient, substance abuse and residential beds.
• Increases and extends existing authorization for involuntary outpatient treatment programs.
• Directs HHS secretary to clarify the circumstances when a provider or covered entity may use or disclose protected health information related to treatment of an adult with a mental health or substance use disorder, and authorizes funding for the development of model training.
• Strengthens the mental health and substance abuse treatment workforce through grants to medical residents and fellows to practice psychiatry and addiction medicine in underserved, community-based settings.
• Offers grants to nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychologists and social workers to provide mental health and substance abuse services in underserved communities.
• Establishes a new adult suicide prevention and intervention program.
• Authorizes grants to law enforcement agencies for crisis intervention teams and mental health and substance abuse de-escalation training.
• Creates a pilot federal mental health court program.
• Creates a National Criminal Justice and Mental Health Training and Technical Assistance Center.
• Requires improvements in U.S. Justice Department data collection on the involvement of mental illness in homicides.
• Requires the federal government to report on the federal, state and local costs of imprisoning individuals with serious mental illness.
Source: National Alliance on Mental Illness analysis of 21st Century Cures Act
