Children's crisis psychiatric residential treatment facilities.

Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, provides for the licensing and regulation of community care facilities, including a children's crisis residential program, by the State Department of Social Services, and defines a children's crisis residential program to mean a facility licensed as a short-term residential therapeutic program and approved by the State Department of Health Care Services, or a county mental health plan, to operate a children's crisis residential mental health program to serve children experiencing mental health crises as an alternative to psychiatric hospitalization. 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, including specified mental health and substance use disorder services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid provisions. Existing federal Medicaid regulations provide for inpatient psychiatric services for individuals under 21 years of age in psychiatric facilities, as prescribed. This bill would reclassify children's crisis residential programs as children's crisis psychiatric residential treatment facilities, and would transfer responsibility for licensing these facilities to the State Department of Health Care Services, contingent upon an appropriation in the annual Budget Act for these purposes. The bill would define "children's crisis psychiatric residential treatment facility" to mean a licensed residential facility operated by a public agency or private organization that provides the psychiatric services, as prescribed under the Medicaid regulations, to individuals under 21 years of age, in an inpatient setting. The bill would require the department to establish regulations for the licensing of children's crisis psychiatric residential treatment facilities, and would require those facilities to obtain certification from the department. The bill would require the department's regulations and certifications to be consistent with applicable Medicaid regulations governing psychiatric residential treatment facilities, in order to maximize federal financial participation. The bill would include inpatient psychiatric services to individuals under 21 years of age provided in a licensed children's crisis psychiatric residential treatment facility as mental health services provided under the Medi-Cal program.