The Legislature came closer Thursday to completing a package of bills aimed at families needing behavioral health services.
JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, April 30, 2009 12:00 am
The Legislature came closer Thursday to completing a package of bills aimed at families that need behavioral health services.
Senators advanced to final reading a bill (LB603) that combines five safe haven-related bills, including a statewide crisis hot line, expansion of the federal and state children's health insurance program known as Kids Connection and other children's behavioral health services around the state.
It is a small, beginning step, Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton said.
"There's no question I wanted more money for my portion of the package," she said. "I cannot stress enough that we are not done once we pass LB603."
The state would spend $16 million on the five-bill package over the next two years.
Nearly $6 million of that would bring an estimated 5,400 more children into the Kids Connection health insurance program.
That would bring the state more in line with others, Lincoln Sen. Bill Avery said, including most of the surrounding states. Several of those are poised to increase children's health insurance programs even more than this bill allows.
The hot line, a family navigator program and services for adoptive parents and guardians of former state wards, originally introduced by Sen. Tim Gay of Papillion, would cost nearly $8 million. The bill calls for those programs to be evaluated to determine what services parents asked for and received and what services are missing.
Dubas' portion of the bill would increase services for children in the six behavioral health regions and would cost $1.5 million.
The bill also would create the Children's Behavioral Health Oversight Committee of nine senators appointed by the Executive Board - two each from the Judiciary, Health and Human Services and Appropriations committees and three members at large.
For three and a half years, the committee would monitor implementation of the bill and other child welfare and juvenile justice behavioral health initiatives.
LB603 would create a center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center to train behavioral health professionals for rural and underserved areas of the state at a cost of $3 million in the next two years.
It would require Health and Human Services to secure Medicaid coverage for community-based residential and extended behavioral health care, whether or not that care has been ordered by a mental health board. That would save the state about $2.5 million over the two years.
If the five bills would have been taken separately and as originally presented, Gay said, it could have cost the state more than $120 million.
Appropriations Committee Chairman Lavon Heidemann told senators the bill must be a priority for them because it will leave virtually no more money in the budget for other bills requiring state funds.
Although some outside the Legislature don't think senators are offering enough, Lincoln Sen. Amanda McGill said they are doing more than promised, which was to start with one or two ways to address the problems families face.
"People have to be patient with us as we spend time studying what we need in the future," she said.
Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.