HBA-MPM C.S.S.B. 1234 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.S.B. 1234
By: Nelson
Public Health
4/30/1999
Committee Report (Substituted)


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Currently, the comptroller, according to the Texas Performance  Review,
recommends that state law should be amended to increase local control of
spending for children's mental health services. The Health and Human
Services Commission (commission) estimates that two-thirds of Texas
children with severe emotional and behavioral problems do not receive the
appropriate and comprehensive help they need.  This is due in part to the
fact that such children often need a variety of services, yet services are
fragmented among a number of different agencies, programs, and funding
sources, each with different regulations and eligibility requirements.
C.S.S.B. 1234 creates a mechanism to allow the Texas Integrated Funding
Initiative to award grants to community-based projects for mental health
services and allow the commission to establish awards criteria and an
evaluation system in order to facilitate more grants being awarded at the
local level. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking
authority is expressly granted to the Health and Human Services Commission
in SECTION 1 (Sections 531.252 and 531.256, Health and Safety Code) of this
bill. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Chapter 531, Government Code, by adding Subchapter G, as
follows:  

SUBCHAPTER G. DEVELOPING LOCAL MENTAL HEALTH 
CARE SYSTEMS FOR CERTAIN CHILDREN 

Sec. 531.251. PILOT PROJECT CONSORTIUM; EXPANSION PLAN.  Requires the
Health and Human Services Commission (commission) to form a consortium to
develop criteria for and implement the expansion of the Texas Integrated
Funding Initiative (TIFI) Pilot Project and to develop local mental health
care systems in communities for minors receiving residential mental health
services or who are at risk of residential placement to receive mental
health services.  Requires the consortium to include representatives of
certain state entities and an equal number of family advocates.  Requires
the commission and consortium to perform certain duties with respect to the
TIFI pilot project. 

Sec. 531.252.  PROPOSALS FOR EXPANSION COMMUNITIES.  Requires the
commission, by rule, to establish a request-for-proposal process to select
expansion communities to participate  in TIFI. Requires the commission and
consortium to develop certain criteria to evaluate proposals for selecting
expansion communities to participate in the expanded initiative. Provides
that populations to be served under the proposals for selecting expansion
communities must include certain youth at risk of residential placement,
incarceration, or reincarceration because of severe emotional disturbance.
Provides that outcome criteria established for expansion communities must
be consistent with outcome measures used in evaluations of individualized
children's services projects in other states. 

Sec. 531.253.  SELECTION OF EXPANSION COMMUNITIES.  Requires the commission
and consortium to review proposals for expansion communities and approve
participation of no more than six communities to participate in TIFI.
Provides that the communities must be those that best meet the criteria
developed under Section 531.252, Government Code. 
 
Sec. 521.254.  SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT COLLABORATION.  Requires the commission,
the consortium, and the expansion communities to collaborate to develop and
to share technical assistance and training resources to aid communities in
developing local systems for delivering mental health services to minors. 

Sec. 531.255.  EVALUATION.  (a) Requires the commission and the Texas
Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (MHMR) to jointly
monitor the progress of the expansion communities. 

(b)  Requires the commission, the consortium, and the expansion communities
to collaborate to develop an evaluative system regarding the expansion
communities in achieving certain outcome goals.  Provides that the
evaluation must include information on cost avoidance and net savings
resulting from participation in TIFI. 

(c)  Requires each expansion community to identify the baseline information
to compare with the information on outcomes in evaluating the achievements
of the community. Provides that the community is responsible for collecting
and reporting this information to the commission according to the
requirements of the evaluation system. 

(d)  Requires an expansion community, to the extent practicable, to use
instruments to measure outcomes that have known reliability and validity
and that allow comparisons with similar projects in other states and with
national evaluation efforts. 

Sec. 531.256.  MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR YOUTH GRANTS.  Requires the
commission to expand TIFI to enable TIFI to award grants for community
projects for mental health services for youth on or before September 1,
2001.  Requires the commission, by rule, to develop criteria for awarding
grants under this section to encourage certain community goals.  Authorizes
the grants to be paid from the fund developed for TIFI, and authorizes the
commission to establish and identify money for related projects.  

Sec. 531.257.  TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR GRANT PROJECTS.  Authorizes the
commission to provide technical assistance to a community that receives a
grant under Section 531.256, Government Code.  

Sec. 531.258.   STATEWIDE EVALUATION SYSTEM.  Requires the commission to
develop an evaluation system to measure outcomes of TIFI.  

SECTION 2.  Requires the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services,
Texas Education Agency, MHMR, Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse,
Texas Youth Commission, and Texas Juvenile Probation Commission to each
transfer to the commission $30,000 in fiscal year 2000 and $70,000 in
fiscal year 2001, to finance TIFI.  Requires the commission to promote the
participation of new communities in and projects for TIFI to attract
matching funds and local participation.  

SECTION 3.Emergency clause.
  Effective date: upon passage.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

C.S.S.B. 1234 differs from the original bill as follows:

SECTION 1 of the substitute adds new Sections 531.251-531.255, Government
Code.  Please see the Section-by-Section Analysis of this document.   

Section 531.256 of the substitute is redesignated from Section 531.251 of
the original and makes no change. 

Section 531.257 of the substitute is redesignated from Section 531.252 of
the original and  makes a conforming change. 

Section 531.258 of the substitute is redesignated from Section 531.253 of
the original, and requires the commission to develop an evaluation system
to measure outcomes of TIFI, rather than to measure outcomes of projects
for services associated with TIFI.