Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Under existing law, the department and counties provide specialty mental health services for Medi-Cal beneficiaries through mental health managed care plans, as specified. Under existing law, these services may include crisis stabilization services and inpatient psychiatric care.

This bill would authorize a certified crisis stabilization unit designated by a mental health managed care plan, at the discretion of the mental health managed care plan, to provide medically necessary crisis stabilization services to individuals beyond the service time of 24 hours in those cases in which the individual needs inpatient psychiatric care or outpatient care and crisis stabilization beds inpatient psychiatric beds or outpatient services are not reasonably available. The bill would require a person who is placed under, or who is already under, a 72-hour involuntary hold because, based on probable cause, the person, as a result of a mental disorder, is a danger to others, or to himself or herself, or is gravely disabled, to be credited for the time detained at a certified crisis stabilization unit. The bill would require the department to amend its contract with a mental health plan to include a provision authorizing the provision of crisis stabilization services for more than 24 hours if the mental health plan elects to provide crisis stabilization services under these provisions. The bill would require the department to require these mental health plans to establish treatment protocols, documentation standards, and administrative procedures, consistent with best practices and other evidence-based medicine, to be followed by a certified crisis stabilization unit for appropriate treatment to individuals who are provided crisis stabilization services for more than 24 hours. The bill would require the department to seek any state plan amendments or waivers, or amendments to existing waivers, that are necessary to implement these provisions.