Bill Text: NY A09477 | 2015-2016 | General Assembly | Amended

---

Bill Title: Makes care and services provided by licensed mental health practitioners eligible for coverage under the Medicaid program.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 18-3)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-05-04 - print number 9477a [A09477 Detail]

Download: New_York-2015-A09477-Amended.html

---

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                         9477--A
                   IN ASSEMBLY
                                     March 10, 2016
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by  M.  of A. HARRIS, ABBATE, ABINANTI, BLAKE, COLTON, COOK,
          CORWIN, CROUCH, CYMBROWITZ, DUPREY, GUNTHER, HYNDMAN, MILLER,  MOSLEY,
          PEOPLES-STOKES,  ROBINSON,  HUNTER  --  Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A.
          SEPULVEDA, SIMON, THIELE -- read once and referred to the Committee on
          Health -- committee discharged, bill  amended,  ordered  reprinted  as
          amended and recommitted to said committee
        AN  ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to making care and
          services provided by licensed mental health practitioners eligible for
          coverage under the Medicaid program
          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section  1.  Legislative intent. Whereas Medicaid covers mental health
     2  services in New York state to psychiatrists,  psychologists  and  social
     3  workers,  Medicaid  does  not  recognize  New York state licensed mental
     4  health practitioners as providers within the  Medicaid  program.  Mental
     5  health practitioners are often the only mental health providers in urban
     6  underserved  minority  communities.  A  critical  result of this lack of
     7  providers is that minority communities bear a disproportionate number of
     8  burdens of mental health disabilities and  inadequately  treated  mental
     9  health  disorders.  Excluding  mental health practitioners from treating
    10  Medicaid beneficiaries with untreated mental illness puts such benefici-
    11  aries disproportionately  at  risk  for  engagement  with  the  criminal
    12  justice  system. This puts individuals, families and communities at risk
    13  of harm.  Approximately 26 percent of adults  experience  a  diagnosable
    14  behavioral  health  disorder each year, and researchers have reported 20
    15  percent of adolescents display psychological problems. Behavioral health
    16  disorders, ranging from inattention to violence are often  a  result  of
    17  those psychological problems.
    18    Mental  health  practitioners  are valuable providers of mental health
    19  services in New York state. Unfortunately Medicaid  does  not  recognize
    20  their important contribution to the present health care delivery system.
    21    §  2.  Subdivision  2  of  section 365-a of the social services law is
    22  amended by adding a new paragraph (dd) to read as follows:
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD08250-03-6
        A. 9477--A                          2
     1    (dd)  care  and  services  provided  by  mental  health  practitioners
     2  licensed  pursuant  to  article one hundred sixty-three of the education
     3  law, including such care and services provided in a hospital out-patient
     4  or clinic facility referred to in paragraph (c) of this subdivision.
     5    § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninety-first day after it shall
     6  have become a law.