California Community-Based Behavioral Health Outcomes and Accountability Review.

Existing law, the Bronzan-McCorquodale Act, contains provisions governing the operation and financing of community mental health services for persons with mental health disorders in every county through locally administered and locally controlled community mental health programs. Existing law requires the Director of State Hospitals to establish a Performance Outcome Committee, which is charged with developing measures of performance for evaluating client outcomes and cost effectiveness of mental health services provided pursuant to the act. This bill would require the California Health and Human Services Agency to establish, by July 1, 2023, the California Community-Based Behavioral Health Outcomes and Accountability Review (CBBH-OAR) to facilitate a local accountability system that fosters continuous quality improvement in county behavioral health programs and in the collection and dissemination by the agency of best practices in service delivery. The bill would require the agency to convene a workgroup to establish a workplan by which the CBBH-OAR shall be conducted and to consult on various other components of the CBBH-OAR process. This bill would require the CHHB-OAR to consist of performance indicators, a county behavioral health agency self-assessment process, and a county behavioral health system improvement plan. The bill would require the CBBH-OAR to be completed every 3 years. The bill would require the agency or its designee to receive, review, and certify all components of county-submitted CHHB-OARs and identify and promote the replication of best practices in community-based behavioral health service delivery. The bill would require a county to fulfill any components of its county behavioral health system improvement plan that it can do with existing resources. By creating new county duties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.