ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fifth Legislature, Second Regular Session
serious mental illness; annual report
Purpose
Requires the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) to annually report outlined information relating to individuals living with a serious mental illness.
Background
AHCCS must annually report to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee on each fiscal year's Medicaid and non-Medicaid behavioral health expenditures, including behavioral health demographics that include: 1) client income; 2) utilization and expenditures; 3) medical necessity oversight practices; 4) tracking of high-cost beneficiaries; 5) mortality trends; 6) placement trends; 7) program integrity; and 8) access to services (A.R.S. § 36-3405).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires AHCCCS to annually report outlined information relating to individuals living with a serious mental illness, including.
a) annual mortality;
b) complaints received from individuals with serious mental illness or their representatives regarding access to services by geographic service area and eligibility category; and
c) enrollment by geographic service area and eligibility category.
2. Requires the AHCCCS report to outline demographics by geographic service area and eligibility category, including:
a) age;
b) gender;
c) race;
d) student status;
e) employment status;
f) percentage incarcerated in the preceding year; and
g) percentage who are homeless.
3. Requires the AHCCCS report to outline per capita expenditures by geographic service area and eligibility category for:
a) the number receiving services;
b) per capita expenditures; and
c) the number receiving services and per capita costs per service category.
4. Requires the AHCCCS report to outline per capita expenditures by service type and eligibility category for:
a) support services;
b) inpatient services;
c) pharmacy services;
d) rehabilitation services;
e) treatment services;
f) medical services; and
g) crisis intervention services.
5. Requires the AHCCCS report to outline the average length of stay and readmission rates by eligibility category for various settings, including:
a) level I;
b) level I subacute; and
c) behavioral health residential facilities.
6. Requires the AHCCCS report, beginning with information from FY 2022 and annually thereafter, to outline individuals living with serious mental illness enrolled in each regional behavioral health authority by geographic service area and county, including:
a) the number of members who are on a waitlist for a type of housing, an analysis of where each member resided while on the waitlist and the length of time that each member was on the waitlist; and
b) the criteria and process that each regional behavioral health authority uses to assign a member to the housing waitlist or to move a member up or down on the housing waitlist in prioritizing housing placement.
7. Requires AHCCCS to annually report the data and information to the:
a) Joint Legislative Budget Committee; and
b) Chairpersons of the Health and Human Services Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives or their successor committees.
8. Requires the AHCCCS report to be in a substantially comparable format as the submitted annual Department of Health Services (DHS) report in FY 2015.
9. Requires AHCCCS and DHS to enter into a data sharing agreement for the purposes of vital records information necessary for the report.
10. Makes a conforming change.
11. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 14, 2022
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